Love is a Weapon
by Loki-Thor
Summary: Naruto, as a child, meets Tenten in the orphanage he lives in, and they soon grow close but, is that all they feel for each other? Possible future lemons and possible Team 7 bashing. Thinking about it.
1. Meeting in the Orphanage

**Love is a weapon**

**This is my new try on a fic, this time NaruTen. Why? Well, I'm a Tenten fanboy, problem? Good, I thought so… There will probably be a little of Team 7 bashing, and lemons in the future. **

**Just a notice: I'm Spanish. And I'm writing this fic entirely in English. Why? I like English better. So don't think badly of me if there are things mistyped or things like that, ok?**

**On with the fic!**

**Disclaimer (only once): I don't own Naruto, I just own my perverted imagination and my splendid ideas MWAHAHAHA**

**4 years after the Kyuubi Attack, early February**

It was a day like any other in Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. That didn't really mean that it was a good day for all of its inhabitants. In a little orphanage, a small boy with a golden and unruly mop of hair sat down in a corner hugging his legs. It had been so far a bad day. In the morning, he found out the other kids had hidden all his clothes and things all around the building, leaving him almost naked in the cold. After running all around the building among the laughter of the other orphans and the glares and insults of the caretakers, he found almost all of his possessions, which didn't mean a lot. Then he went to the dining room to have a poor breakfast, and after that, he tried once again to play with the boys and girls there, but the adults had other plans for him. They made him work for them in the kitchen (not near any food, of course) and in the toilets for the whole morning, while the other children were playing.

Uzumaki Naruto was not what you would call a "happy child".

And there he was, nibbling on a small piece of bread, which made his lunch, hidden from the world, when he felt his tears trying to come out of his eyes. But then he heard footsteps coming, so he had to hold his tears: he had noticed that if he was crying, things only got worse.

Suddenly, the footsteps came to a halt in front of him. Looking up, he saw a little girl. Actually, she was taller than him, but she was still a little girl, not much older than him for sure. She had brown hair down to her shoulder blades and her brilliant chocolate eyes were looking at him in confusion and worry. He noticed that and gave her his trademark smile, the one he put up every time he felt that someone was sad.

But it somehow didn't fool her. She had seen the boy before, and she had seen how the other kids, and even the adults, treated him, and she didn't like it one bit. As far as she could see, the boy was just lonely (and a bit malnourished), and somehow, the adults made it impossible for him to have any friends. But she wanted that to change. She reached for his shoulder with a hand.

Naruto tried to avoid her, but he couldn't go anywhere. Imagining that this girl just wanted to beat him like the other boys did sometimes, he cowered in fear and accepted the incoming lynching. But it somehow didn't come.

The girl was surprised and sad for that boy. The instant she was reaching for him with her hand, he started trembling in fear. She could feel a tear rolling down her face. This kid needed a friend, and she was decided to give him one.

"Don't worry. I won't do anything," said the girl in a reassuring voice.

"No! They always say the same thing… But then they beat me! You are just the same!" cried Naruto, still scared of the sudden approaching of the girl.

She was stunned, for lack of a better word. But she didn't stay back. She wanted to be this boy's friend, and she could be really stubborn if she wanted. So, in stance of going back, she sat at her side and started playing with a plastic kunai she had gotten for Christmas last year. After half an hour, the boy hadn't moved at all, when he whispered:

"Why?"

The girl was surprised to hear him talk again, and answered, "Why what?"

"Why are you staying here with me? I'm not your friend; I don't even know you well!"

"Well, would you like to?"

Naruto stopped right on the tracks of his rant and looked at the girl at his side wide-eyed. "What?"

"I said if you would like to be my friend," answered the girl with a beautiful smile in her face.

Naruto felt himself freeze right there and then. This girl who he hadn't even noticed before just wanted to be his friend. He came to his senses when he felt tears beginning to roll down his eyes. _'Why am I crying? I… I don't feel bad at all… in fact… I feel… warm… I feel fine…' _He looked up and saw that the girl was starting to look worried again. _'Oh, no, she is going to misunderstand me…' _"Thank you…"

The brunette almost could hear his whisper so he neared her face to his to hear better. "What did you say?"

"Thank you… thank you…" Naruto kept crying.

The brunette hugged him with one arm around his body and whispered soothing words to him, "You don't have to thank me anything, it's okay…"

When the boy calmed down a few minutes later he said, "I'm Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto."

The girl smiled. Naruto was starting to accept her. "Kirihana Tenten. Glad to meet you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto gave Tenten a warm smile. It was not one of his fake smiles… It was a true one, a truly happy smile. _'Now that is a smile. It's warm and it feels strangely good when he gives it.'_ She stood up and tended him a hand. "Come on, get up. We're going to have some fun together." And before he could say anything, she held his arm and was dragging him out by the door.

Some days later, they could be found in the early afternoon sitting happily in the branch of a small tree, talking about each other and getting to know each other. Naruto was surprised at Tenten. She was a bit of a tomboy, sure, and she was strong, but he could actually sometimes see a girly side in her, but he didn't point it out. He somehow felt that if he pointed it out, he wouldn't make her happy… He didn't know why, he thought that girly part of her made her a bit cute. For example, she liked to try new hairstyles each day. One day she appeared with a ponytail, the other with twintails, loose hair, a braid… you couldn't know how she was going to make her hair up, but somehow she seemed to match her hair with her personality that day… or was it the other way around?

Tenten, on the other hand, was amazed with Naruto. Even though he was beaten almost every day, he wasn't weak. When she asked him why he didn't defend himself, she regretted it almost instantly. His face took a dark and sad tone, and he looked at the ground and said that if he defended himself and, somehow, hurt the other children, that would only make them hate him more. When he said that, Tenten was stunned. She didn't expect that kind of response from a kid that usually acted like a goof. She felt that Naruto was somehow much more mature than what he let out. She was also amazed that he somehow was in good terms with the Hokage, who came by some times to see him. The boy was growing more and more mysterious.

One day, they were sitting at their spot in the trees, talking and laughing. At one moment, Tenten looked at the sky and said, "Ne, Naruto-kun…"

Naruto looked at her concerned of her serious expression and asked, "What's up, Tenten-chan?"

Tenten simply said, "Do you have a dream?"

"A dream?" "Yeah, a dream… You know, something you want to happen."

"Ooh, I know… Yeah, I have one."

Tenten looked at him with curiosity, "What's it?"

"I want to be… swimming in a huge bowl of ramen, as big as the Hokage Mountain! And filled with all types of ramen: miso ramen, pork ramen, beef ramen, shrimp ramen… Oooh, I'm drooling just thinking of it…" said Naruto with a bit of drool in the corners of his mouth and his stomach growling.

Tenten had to grab a branch not to fall off the tree. She couldn't grow accustomed to the unpredictability of the boy at her side. She bopped him playfully in the head and said, "Not that, baka! I mean something you want to be when you are older."

"Oh, that kind of dream… I'm sorry Tenten-chan, I'm a bit hungry, hehehe. Well, if it could happen, I would like to become a ninja. The strongest of all shinobi. I want to be the best Hokage ever! Just like Hokage-jii-chan!"

Tenten smiled at the thought that someone had a dream like her own. "You know, I'd like to see that happen… Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage of Konoha… sounds good don't you think?" That comment earned a blush and a smile from Naruto. "And Kirihana Tenten, the strongest and most beautiful kunoichi ever."

Naruto smiled warmly at her, still with a slight blush. "I'm sure you could make it happen"

Tenten blushed brightly at his comment… had he called her beautiful? Tenten tried to discard that thought as much as she could and she got up with a jump. "Ok, let's go."

Naruto looked at her with curiosity and asked, "Where to?"

"If you are going to be the strongest shinobi ever, and I am to be the strongest kunoichi ever, we have to begin training, don't you think? Now, let's go."

As they were going to the playground, however, the caretaker came out. "Where do you think you are going, brat? You are supposed to be cleaning the caretakers' toilets right now."

Tenten glared at the caretaker, a lanky old woman with glasses. "What is this about cleaning? I thought we didn't have to do any work in the house."

"Shut up, Kirihana-san, this matter does not concern you!" shouted the old woman. "Or is it that you want to help your little _friend_ here with the toilets?" she said, almost spitting the word.

Tenten was about to shout back at her when Naruto put a hand in her shoulder. "Don't worry, Tenten. I wouldn't want to get you in trouble… I'll do it. Just wait for me and I'll come back to train with you." After he said that, he went in the building. When he was out of earshot, the woman looked around and, seeing nobody else who could get her in trouble, told her,

"You'd better watch who you share your time with, Kirihana-san. We wouldn't want him doing something to you. After all, a _demon _isn't a good friend for a young lady such as you. Just know I'll keep my eyes on you," and then, she left after the blonde boy, leaving behind a confused and angry Tenten.

The brunette waited there obediently, playing with her plastic kunai and occasionally writing and drawing things in the sand with it. Three hours later, the sun was setting, and she was writing Naruto's name in the sand and thinking _'He's late. He's really late… What could have happened to him… He couldn't have forgotten, could he? No, he wouldn't… right? And what did she mean by that…' _Her train of thoughts came suddenly to a halt when she heard the door of the building open and she saw Naruto crawling out of there.

Or something that looked remotely like him.

He was battered and beaten in many forms. His left arm was broken, he had cuts all over his body, a particularly nasty one in his calf. All his old clothes were ragged and bloody, and half of his face was purple or black. She felt like a part of her died the moment she saw him crawling up to her until he told her with a smile in his face and a weak voice, "I told you I would come. Now, let's tra-" He was cut short when he collapsed.

She run up to him and checked if he was alive, thanking god for the few ninja scrolls she had read in the library, because now she knew how to check if he was alive. She found out that he was, but very weak. She felt like she had to get someone, but she somehow knew that no one in the orphanage would help him. She cried at her inability to help until she felt someone coming to them. When she turned around, she found herself looking at the weary eyes of a concerned and sad Hokage.

"I never thought this situation would climb to such an extent…" he said, and he lifted the boy in his arms and began walking out of the orphanage. He stopped at the door, and looking nowhere in particular, he asked, "Aren't you coming?"

The brunette got up in a jump and headed out with the old man, not looking back once at the orphanage that had mistreated her friend so badly.

After that incident, Naruto healed his wounds surprisingly quickly, adding yet another mystery to the puzzle that was the blonde boy for the brunette. Then, the Hokage was informed of the situation by Tenten, and he took measures. The current head caretaker, the old woman who made Naruto work at the toilets that day, 'disappeared suddenly', but the situation didn't change for the better for the blonde boy, because her substitute was the same as her. It was now some months later, it was mid-September and he was talking with her best friend (not that he had many), Tenten. Said girl was worried because her blonde friend had a serious expression in his face since the beginning of the day, when he had come back from the Hokage Tower where he had been called first thing in the morning.

"What is it, Naruto-kun?" asked the brunette, laying her back against the bark of the tree they were sitting on, her hair in a ponytail at the side of her head wouldn't be a problem in that position.

"Wh-what do you mean, Tenten-chan?" asked Naruto, surprised by the sudden question.

"Come on, Naruto-kun. We have known each other for more than a year now. I know when you are thinking about something. And for something to come into that thick head of yours, it must be something pretty important. What is it? Or is it that you don't trust me?" the brunette asked, her lips in a pout that made her cuteness grow to limits that Naruto couldn't bear for too long.

"Ok, ok. Damn, you know I can't do anything against that face…" _'I don't want to think what she could do if she learned that "Puppy-Eyes no Jutsu" Hokage-jii-chan talks about'_

"I just didn't want to tell you anything because I didn't know how you would take it," Naruto continued. "I heard jii-chan talking about something with his secretary. It seems they are going to make me legally adult on my next birthday and he is going to give me my own apartment." Tenten's eyes seemed to brighten at that statement. "Before you say anything about how great it would be, I don't think so… I heard jii-chan say he is worried about what could happen next to me, and I am worried too… Furthermore," he felt a growing blush, "I won't be able to spend time with you, because of the orphanage and… you know…"

The brunette felt sadden with the realization of what exactly he was talking about. She didn't want to leave her now best friend, but she knew this could be for the better… and… "Actually, Naruto-kun, I have something to tell you too… I overheard a conversation the other day… It seems a couple of weapon makers want to adopt me. I feel happy, because I could have a family, and even become a ninja…" she felt like blushing too, "but I don't want to be apart from you either, Naruto-kun…" She lifted her gaze and saw herself reflected in his cerulean blue eyes. Anyone that saw them in that moment before they pulled their gaze to the side would have thought those two kids had invented a new shade of crimson. "I-I mean, you're my best friend, and all…"

They looked at each other shyly and then began laughing loudly. "Tenten, let's make a promise," he closed his right hand and straightened the pinky finger. "In a short time, we will be separated, but no matter what we do, no matter where we go, we are best friends forever."

The brunette smiled and grabbed the extended finger with her own, and both said, "Pinky promise, hold this in your head: if you break the promise, I'll tickle you to death."

Naruto let out a small laugh. "What's up?" "It's nothing, I'm just thinking that you won't have a chance to tickle me to death. Because I never break a promise, believe it."

Tenten grew a devious smile, "Oh, but that doesn't mean I can't tickle you to half-death." And with that said, she jumped at him and began tickling his sides. Naruto began revolving and laughing like a madman, struggling against her attack. When they stopped, Tenten was on top of Naruto straddling him, their faces just inches apart. They were both breathing hard, and their breaths warmed each other faces even more. The rubber band that was holding her hair had broken sometime during the battle, and her long hair, that now reached to her mid-back, fell like a curtain around them.

At the speed of sound, Tenten jumped up from him and ran to her bedroom until she arrived and buried her head in her pillow. _'WHAT WAS THAT? Why was my heart beating like that? He's just a friend, and we're too young… I'm only six, for the love of Kami! And it's like we were k- ki-' _She blushed as red as a tomato._ ' I don't want to get pregnant!'_ Ah, the mind of a little girl…

Meanwhile Naruto was frozen in place, eyes wide-open and didn't know what to think about what had just happened. Though had he known what to think, it wouldn't matter much, as his brain had shut down temporarily…

**10****th**** October**

Naruto stood near the gates of the orphanage, sitting on a small bag with all of his belongings. The Hokage was near him, waiting for him to leave, but he had said he wanted to wait for a friend. Knowing who he was talking about, he left with a perverted smirk, but not too far, just enough to give them intimacy.

When Naruto saw Tenten walk out of the orphanage he gave her a half-smile. Sure, he was sad about leaving her, but he was happy too, that they both were being given a place to live. Tenten even had a family now.

Tenten ran ahead of her new parents, her hair in two buns up in her head, one on each side, wearing a pink t-shirt and green pants. She wanted to give a good impression to her new parents, so she was wearing her best clothes. When she arrived with Naruto, they stopped a few feet away from each other. They hugged awkwardly and he said, "See you some time."

"Yeah, you bet," Tenten answered. They hadn't ever talked about that moment after the tickle battle, to not bring up awkward moments, but the memory was always there, more or less hidden. Suddenly, Naruto let out a little laugh. "What's up now?"

"It's nothing. I was just looking how good those buns look on you," Naruto said, poking playfully her hair with a slight blush in his face. Tenten blushed brightly and began running after Naruto, bopping him in his head or his back whenever she came near enough.

The Hokage, meanwhile, was talking with the Higurashi couple, the new parents of the girl who was now laughing and running after the boy he considered a grandson. "Somehow, they look made for each other, don't you think?"

The Higurashi couldn't but smile and nod. Things were surely going to be interesting…

**That's it for now, this is the beginning of a new fic, one that I seriously intend on continuing. Next chapter will be a time-skip, of course, because it's too difficult to get in the mind of a child without making them look too mature (you may have noticed that).**

**R&R, people! Flames will be used to cook ramen. (hmmm… ramen…)**

**Ja ne!**


	2. A New Life & Academy Days

**I'm back! You people seemed to like the fic much more than I expected at first (I nearly fainted when I checked my mail that evening…), so I started writing this chapter that same evening while the iron was hot. **

**Summary so far: **_**Naruto met Tenten in the orphanage they lived in and they soon became good friends. But the constant abuse that Naruto suffered made the Hokage take the measures he could to ensure the blond boy's well-being. On his 5**__**th**__** birthday, Naruto is given an apartment and Tenten is adopted.**_

**On with the chapter!**

**

* * *

October 10****th****, Streets of Konoha**

Naruto was walking down the street in company of the most powerful man of the village, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha. The man who was trained by both the Shodaime Hokage and the Nidaime Hokage, knower of more than a thousand jutsu and called by both allies and enemies "the Professor" or "God of Shinobi". A man known all around the shinobi world for his strength and his power, as demonstrated in the last wars he took part in. But even with such a man with him, the glares kept landing on Naruto, and whispers covered the streets. Of course, everyone was very careful not to slip and accidentally calling him anything that could put them in a tight position should the Hokage hear them.

But Naruto paid those glares, murmurs and insults even less attention than ever. His mind was set in just one thing: the new life his 'jii-chan' had given him the opportunity to live. After his 5th birthday, Uzumaki Naruto was to be considered an adult, and given a small apartment to live and a small monthly salary to live with. For little Naruto, the world looked almost as if it was painted in a brighter color. He felt 'as a big guy', an adult. But he was also mature enough to know, in the deeper parts of his being, that nothing could be so good and not take anything from him.

The Sandaime, on the other hand, was very worried for Naruto. Giving him adult status at such an early age could result in many things, and not even nearly half of them were good. But he didn't have any other way of helping Naruto. The thrice damned 'all-knowing' council had made it impossible for Naruto to be adopted into any family. Not that it mattered much, because there were not that many clans that would be glad to adopt the young jinchuuriki into their families. But still, the boy would have been better off living with the Inuzuka or the Yamanaka, two clans that he knew had approved of him. But at any attempt of trying the adoption, the council would claim the boy as a property of the village, seeing as the Kyuubi no Youko was the Fire Country's guardian before the attack, and, as such, not deemed for personal adoption. His advisor Danzo wasn't of much help either, with his constants requests (at least once a month) for 'adopting' the boy with the intention to make him into a weapon for the use of Konoha. That was a solution the council was willing to accept, but the Sandaime would never condemn a little boy with that fate.

The option of leaving him in the orphanage was a direct no. As happy as he was that he had made a friend there (and a good one, by the looks of it), the way he was being treated there made him want to burn the whole building to ashes with all its employees inside, and claim it an accident during the testing of a high-rank fire jutsu. But as much as he wanted to, he remembered that there were still innocent children that needed the orphanage intact for their chance of survival.

The only possible solution left for the boy's problem was giving him a premature adulthood and a place of his own to live in. This was an option the council would accept, due to the obvious risks to the life of the boy that doing this would bring. Risks that the majority of the council was more than willing to run. The boy's adulthood would strip him of his child rights, and he would have to live completely on his own. Added to a request that his allowance would be of a quantity that couldn't possibly be enough for his survival, the council was ready to accept the deal. With a humble and silent apology that the Sandaime directed to his deceased successor, the deal was signed.

And now, he was walking down the street with the blond boy that was the cause of most of his headaches, the most urgent one was a question he had been wondering about since that morning. _'How can I even begin to explain a 5-year-old kid, wait, scratch that, a 5-year-old __**adult**__ the dangers he would probably soon be faced against?'_At that same moment, a sweet aroma reached his nose moments before he bumped into Naruto, who had frozen in his step in front of a familiar stand with red letters in the awning. At that moment, the answer lit up Sandaime's old head. _'Of course, over a bowl of ramen.'_ "Come on, Naruto. For your birthday, I'll treat you to as much ramen as you can eat." Soon, the Hokage would regret those words.

* * *

When Naruto was wolfing down his 6th bowl of ramen, he chatted with the owner of the stand, one Ichiraku Teuchi, and his beautiful and young daughter, Ichiraku Ayame.

"I see, so it's your birthday, Naruto?" Teuchi asked. Naruto nodded vigorously with his mouth still full of the delicious noodles and broth. Teuchi laughed, "And furthermore, you are an adult now? We've got to celebrate our best customer's coming of age!"

Naruto swallowed down the ramen in his mouth as fast as he could, almost choking. "Re –cough- Really? Does it mean you're gonna give me a discount, ossan?"

Teuchi looked over at the Hokage, who was already seeing money growing wings out of his wallet, seeing as Naruto kept eating and eating without seeming to stop in a long while, and found him looking at him with stars in his eyes. Thrown over by the look in the eyes of one of the most powerful shinobi of the world, the owner of the stand said, "Heh, why not? After all, it's not every day that you become an adult, gaki."

"YEAH!" The Ichiraku pair couldn't, and wouldn't ever decide who shouted louder of their two customers.

Ayame chose that moment to go into teasing mode. "More importantly, Naruto-kun, what is this I have heard? Have you gotten yourself a… 'friend'?"

Naruto stopped eating his now 7th bowl and looked at Ayame with a confused expression at the tone of the question. But just a moment later, he discarded his thoughts and grinned. "Yeah, her name is Tenten-chan. She's cool, strong, and fun to be around with. But I thought I had already talked to you about her, Ayame-nee-chan."

The waitress flashed him a sly smile and said teasingly, "That's not what I was talking about, Naruto-kun, and you know it. Tell me, how is she?"

The blond didn't yet know what she was talking about. He was sure he had come there to eat a lot of times after meeting Tenten and becoming friends with her, so he was sure he had told her nee-chan about her. But he decided to follow her game, without knowing he had fallen into her trap. "Well, she is funny, caring, kind… she is strong, and wants to be a ninja , just like me. She has helped me a lot of times, and I help her too…"

Ayame decided to cut to the point, "Is she cute?"

Naruto froze. He even stopped eating, something that worried Teuchi, but amused the other two to no end. When the blond boy gained a healthy red color on his face, he asked the only thing he could think of. "WHAT?"

"Oh, didn't you hear me? Naruto-kun, is that Tenten-chan what you would call cute?"

The blond child couldn't help but see images of his brunette friend in his head. Her chocolate eyes, her smile, the way she changed her hairstyle every day… Every little thing he had unconsciously noticed about his friend passed through his mind. What he didn't notice until it was too late was the growing red color in his face, taking a crimson shade before he looked around confused, touching his cheeks and mumbling "Eh? Eh? A- Are? Wha-"

The trio couldn't hold it anymore and burst in laughter at the blond's antics. The boy could only bury his face in the 9th bowl of ramen and mumble "It's not funny… Ayame-nee-chan, you meanie…" After hearing him, they began laughing even louder. Luckily, the stand was empty aside from them; everyone was preparing for that night's festival. That way, they could laugh and talk as loud as they wanted without having to worry at all.

After a good five minutes in which the blond boy had more or less calmed down and enjoyed two more bowls of ramen, they still were laughing, but in a more controlled way. He chose this time to ask Teuchi if he could use the toilet. When he was gone, the old man asked Ayame to go to the kitchen to see if they had more flour. Ayame knew that they had restocked earlier for the festival, but imagining that her father just wanted to discuss something in private with the Hokage, she left through the backdoor.

As soon as she left, he closed the door to make sure she wouldn't listen in and he talked to his other customer in a serious voice, "Are you sure of what you are doing, Hokage-sama?"

The old man sighed and pinched his nose, feeling his age reaching to him. "To be honest, no I'm not. But it's the only way out."

"Excuse me, but I'm not sure that is the best for him by far. I mean, with all due respect, but you haven't seen what the boy has suffered in the streets as I have. Every day the glares directed to a single young boy make me want to turn my back on this village and say goodbye and screw you all. But I know Naruto wouldn't like it.

One day, when I was closing shop, I heard noise coming from a nearby alley. Out of curiosity, I went to check what was the noise and, what did you think I saw? I saw a young blond boy, not more than 3 years old, unconscious, battered, bruised, blood-covered, and with some weapons which name I don't know buried in his back. I carried him on my arms and sat him on that stool, the same stool he has sat in every day after that. Luckily, my Ayame was already at home and didn't have to see him like that. A child that I seriously thought was dead.

But he woke up. Miraculously, he woke up. When I tried to ask him if he knew his aggressors, he just smiled and told me not to worry. I invited him to a bowl of soup, which he said it was the most delicious thing he had tasted before. When he was leaving he crossed paths with a man who began threatening him, but he just walked away. The next day I saw him, I asked him if he didn't fear them, and didn't want to make them pay. Do you know what he told me?"

"'I don't want to. If I take revenge, more people will come, more people will hate me, and more people will suffer'" Sarutobi cited, almost at the same time as Teuchi, surprising him. "I suppose his treatment in the streets is as bad as it was in the orphanage. But in the streets, he will be able to live. He could escape, he could learn… he could be free. The only things I can give him are this amount of freedom and some opportunities. But don't think I'll throw him at a wolves' den alone. I'm setting up some of my personal ANBU to keep an eye on the boy. Sadly, they won't be able to stay with him 24/7, but things will get better for him."

At that time, as if on cue, Naruto came out of the toilet and walked over to his stool, asking for some more ramen.

* * *

When the blond reached the 20 bowls landmark, he began to feel his limit, so he stopped. Over the rest of the meal, he had kept what Teuchi called a "man-to-man" chat with the older men in the stand, trying to understand some more things about the new life he would lead starting the next day.

When the Hokage saw the boy finish his last bowl of ramen, he asked Naruto, "Well, Naruto, let's talk about something else… Do you have a dream?"

Remembering the talk he had had with his best friend some time ago, he answered, "Yeah, I want to be the best ninja ever. And I want to be Hokage!"

Sarutobi smirked, already knowing his dream from the talks he had had with Naruto about his job. "Well, what would you say if I told you I could help you?"

Naruto's eyes widened and shined like blue stars. "Really? You are going to make me Hokage? YAHOO!"

"Oi, oi, hold your horses, Naruto… There's a long, long road to become Hokage, and you should know it from what I have told you over the years… What I'm saying is I would like to enroll you in the Ninja Academy."

"Really? But… haven't classes already started for this year?"

"Well, you could sit a year and wait for the next class or you could remember that I am Hokage and I can put you in any class I damn well want!" the Hokage said, grinning at the young boy.

Suddenly, the old shinobi was holding himself to the stool with one hand to avoid being tackled to the ground by the blond blur that jumped against him, glomping in a big hug and muttering all the time "Thank you… thank you…"

After paying for the ridiculous amount of ramen the boy had consumed, Naruto asked the old man with him for a favour that earned him a smile from the rest of the people in the stand, especially Ayame. "Ne, jii-chan, can you enroll Tenten-chan too? She told me she wanted to be a kunoichi, too, but as she has just been adopted, and all, I'm not sure if she has been able to enroll on time…"

"Heh, of course, Naruto. I'll talk with her and the Higurashi, and if they agree, you will be put in the same class as your girlfriend."

Naruto hugged the old man again, "Thank you, jii-…" Then, the realization hit him. "Hey, she's not my girlfriend!"

At that, Ayame, Teuchi and Hiruzen all began laughing again, while Naruto left mumbling something about perverted nosy Hokages. A moment later, the Sandaime turned to Teuchi and said, "You know him, he has a huge heart. Huge enough for the whole village, and there would still be something left for others. If somebody can turn all that hate into respect, that's our Naruto. I'm sure he would make a damn great Hokage." And he stepped out of the stand. "Come on, Naruto, I'll show you your new place."

* * *

When they arrived at the last floor of a broken down apartment building, the old man put a small key in the boy's hands. When he opened excitedly the door in front of them, he said, "Naruto, welcome to your new home," Hiruzen said, opening the door to the small apartment and went inside. He wasn't overly happy of giving this apartment to Naruto. If he could have, he would have given him a better place to live, but with the restrictions the council had put on the boy's life, this was one of the best apartments he could give him. But at least, it looked like a place to live.

The apartment was, at best, small. A cramped a little kitchen, a small living room with a window leading to a balcony, a tiny bathroom and a small bedroom with a single bed and a little wardrobe was everything the apartment had. In the kitchen, there was a fridge that looked like it had lived through a war or two, a stove and a few cupboards that he had filled with cups of instant ramen as a present for the boy. There was a sink with running water and a small window for smoke extraction.

In the living room, there was only an old couch and a small table with a couple of chairs. The best part of that room was the views: from the big window you could go out to the balcony, and, with the lack of curtains, you could get a magnificent view of the Hokage Mountain from the couch, either looking through the window or the big hole that was in a corner of the room. The walls weren't what you would call 'clean' or 'sanitary', seeing as there was a thick layer of dust all over the place.

The bedroom wasn't in a much better state than the rest of the house, but at least there was no hole in the walls. The bed was naked and the mattress looked a bit old, but it was still comfortable. And the wardrobe didn't really matter to Naruto, who had so few clothes he didn't even feel the need of having one. But he figured it would come handy in the future.

The bathroom was the only clean sanctuary in the whole apartment. A toilet, a sink, a small mirror and a shower. Not that he needed much more.

At first, Sarutobi was worried that he wouldn't like the apartment, but that worry simply disappeared when he saw the bright face of Naruto, who was running all around the place testing everything.

The boy, who in his short life hadn't got almost anything from anybody, was utterly excited at what he had in his hands now. His own place. When compared with where he had been living up to then, it seemed like paradise on earth. He could cope with a bit of dust (of course, he would have to clean so only a bit of dust remained), and the hole in the wall, he could always cover with something. It was amazing the boy's ability to always look on the bright side of things. Of course, his joy skyrocketed when he opened the kitchen cupboards.

He turned and tackled his jii-chan in a big hug, while thanking him eternally for the apartment. "Hehehe, I'm glad that you like it so much, Naruto. Just a few pointers: don't eat all the ramen at once. I know you and I fear that's the first thing you would try to do, so I warn you now: don't." At that, Naruto laughed sheepishly. _'Busted'. _"Remember that you are going to be given an allowance, and you will have to learn how to save the money you are given so it lasts you enough."

"If you need something, don't hesitate to ask me. I don't have that much free time, but if I can't help you, I'll make sure someone I trust will come and help you or teach you. Oh, and don't worry about training too loudly, or anything like that, the neighboring apartments are all empty, except for apartment 213, where an old ex-kunoichi lives. Don't worry about her, she actually a kind woman, next time I come here I'll introduce her to you."

The Hokage looked at the time and said, "Well, Naruto, I have to get going. I'd love to stay a while longer, but my daughter would chew my head out if I don't take them to the festival tonight… Ja ne, Naruto." He turned to leave, but stopped in front of the door. "Oh, I almost forgot, hehehe. Remember to go to the Ninja Academy in two days' time at 7:30 AM. I'll have everything ready for you and your friend to enroll." And with that said, he left the boy to adapt to his apartment.

Naruto, completely tired and full from the ramen marathon earlier that night, only cooked himself 2 cups of ramen and, after eating them in 4 minutes (3 for the ramen to be cooked and 1 for it to be eaten), he went to bed thinking of his friend Tenten. He hoped that her new family was a good one that treated her well. And thinking that, he felt sleep coming to him.

* * *

Before meeting with his family, Hiruzen had to do something else. Just as he was leaving the apartment building, he called his personal ANBU. By his side appeared two cloaked and masked figures, their masks resembled a dog and a cat.

"Inu, Neko, I have a mission and a favor to ask of you. That boy I just left there… I fear for his safety. The village doesn't treat him as he truly deserves, and the security that his new home provides him is almost null. I ask of you two to keep an eye on him. I want him to have a life as normal as I can give him. You are my most trusted guards, and I can't think of any other people to ask this to."

"Don't worry, Hokage-sama. We'll do it," Inu said. _'I owe it to may late sensei, after all.'_

"I trust you won't let me down. Dismissed."

**

* * *

Later that night**

A group of five men, one of them a chuunin, was walking down the street, each one drunker than the one before. They were carrying half-empty bottles of sake.

"Are you sure?" one of the men asked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't like to get into more trouble than necessary."

"Haven't you guys heard the rumor? The demon brat-" The man that was talking shut up in an instant. Luckily for him, it was late at night and no one had heard what he had just said. The Sandaime's Law was still there to punish everyone who talked in such a way of the holder of the Kyuubi. "_He_ is now living alone in an apartment not far from here."

The chuunin decided to put his two cents. "Yeah, while I was in patrol earlier, I heard something about the brat going into a building with the Hokage. I say we pay him a visit like good neighbours, what ya say?"

When they arrived at the building, one of the civilians who now carried a rusty steel pipe he had found in the street asked, "How will we know where he is?"

"Leave that to me," the chuunin said, and then proceeded to scan the building for chakra signatures. He found two of them, but drunk as he was, he could know which was the fox-boy's one. "There are two chakra signatures there. One of them is that damn fox's. I say we check the upper floor's one first."

When they opened the door to the apartment thanks to a jutsu the shinobi knew, they checked the dirty apartment and soon enough they found Naruto asleep in the bed. "Bingo." And the beating began.

Naruto woke up to the feeling of a kunai impaling his arm and sticking it to the wall. Even before the frightened boy could scream, a fist connected with his mouth, making him choke on his words and rendering him unable to shout when he had the opportunity. The ninja proceeded to use a technique he had learned years before from a med-nin, and pierced a point in his neck with a senbon, paralyzing him down from the neck. The blond boy, unable to move or even speak, could only see how the drunken people beat his immobile body with pipes, bottles, knives and various other weapons. They stabbed him repeatedly in the stomach and his chest met the sharp end of a broken sake bottle that stuck there for a while before falling at some moment during the beating. At one particular moment, he saw how two of them extended his leg while other pulverized his knee with a pipe. The poor boy lost count of how many times he lost and regained consciousness during the night, but he didn't shed a single tear.

One of those times he opened his eyes, he tried to look around and found out that he could move his neck again, but he regretted doing so soon enough when a wave of pain rushed through his body at the simple movement. However, he couldn't believe what he was seeing before his eyes. A woman with ANBU clothes and a strange white and red cat mask. Her purple hair fell down her face and over his head while she put her hands, which were glowing green, together over his chest. Not too far from them, another man with silver hair and wearing the same clothes as her partner and a dog mask was tying 2 unconscious men together. A moment later, Naruto began laughing lightly, ignoring the pain that it involved and the fact that now the two young shinobi in his room were looking at him worried, not that he could see it through the masks.

The cat-masked kunoichi talked first, "Boy, do you know the situation you are in? You are lucky to be alive, and I'm almost sure that is we had arrived a little later, you wouldn't be. Why in the damn world are you laughing?"

The blond boy looked at the girl, flashed her an almost perfect grin and said, "I don't know… but… your hands feel warm… it feels… good… and… your hair was tickling me…" and then he let out a light laugh and fell asleep or unconscious, the ANBU couldn't decide for either one.

After a short moment, Yuugao finished healing him, astonished at the natural regeneration abilities the boy seemed to have. _'Maybe the fox is healing him… I will have to talk to Hokage-sama about it later.' _Kakashi then called for the ANBU squad that was disposing of the ones they had captured on the street and told them to take the two prisoners that were in the boy's room to prison too. Once the apartment was empty again, they left the boy to have some much needed sleep and exited the apartment. When they were leaving, they ran into an old woman, in her mid-fifties, and clad in a brown yukata, that was running to them as fast as her age allowed her. It was obvious to the young ANBU that the woman had had ninja training at some time in her life, but her age didn't get them to drop their guard.

The woman, however, stopped just in front of the ANBU and said, "Good night, Inu-san, Neko-san. Could you tell me what has just happened?"

Yuugao, with one hand on her ninjato, asked "First of all, why don't you tell us who you are and why are you here?"

"Oh, right, excuse me, where are my manners… My name is Hino Motoko, retired Jounin. I was having my beauty sleep when some drunkards came into my apartment and woke me up. I defended myself as I could, and, then I heard noise coming from up here. As soon as I dealt with the bastards that came into my house, I came as soon as I could."

Kakashi relaxed a bit having checked with his Sharingan that the woman wasn't lying, and he didn't feel any kind of hate coming from her. "Excuse us, Hino-san. There was an attack against the resident of this apartment, and we couldn't fend off all the attackers as we were dealing with some shinobi squads that came to join them. Sadly, most of them fled before we couldn't properly identify them, but we caught a few of them."

Motoko was visibly shaken with the young ANBU words. "Who in the world could attract such attention on his first day of living here?" Just then, the realization struck her like a lightning. "It wouldn't be that Uzumaki Naruto I've heard of, right?"

Kakashi was surprised, as was Yuugao. Even without special doujutsu or other abilities like that, it was obvious that the tone in her voice when she spoke the blond's name was much unlike how it sounded in most villagers' mouths. Something inside Yuugao made her feel that it wouldn't be that bad trusting the woman in front of her with that bit of information, and just nodded in response. Motoko took a hand to her mouth and gasped in surprise and sadness, "Poor kid…"

Yuugao discussed something with her partner. When he agreed, she led the old lady into the apartment and to the boy's bedroom, where he now laid asleep. "We have decided that you could be trusted, seeing as, from a conversation that we earlier overheard, you have Hokage-sama's trust. Please, we can't do much more for the boy, but maybe you could do something more for him. We have to leave now to report, but one of us will remain nearby in the case we were somehow needed. Please, could you take care of Naruto and keep an eye on him?"

Motoko nodded and the cat-masked ANBU disappeared from sight. Slowly, the woman went to look for a chair, and she sat down next to the boy, who was now sleeping almost peacefully. Half an hour, she finally felt the cat-masked ANBU's signature leave her nearby hiding place. When she had left, she reached with a frail hand and tried to stroke the boy's cheek, but he flinched at the sudden contact. She took back her hand and sighed… that poor boy needed some help, and she was going to help as much as she could. She knew that at her old age, she wouldn't be able to do much, but even a small peddle could make a whole mountain crumble.

* * *

Inu was reporting everything that had happened to the Hokage, who hadn't taken all too well being disturbed in the middle of the night; but if the topic was a certain blond, he was ready to lose a few hours of sleep.

According to Kakashi, at about 3:00 AM, they found a big group of civilians coming down the street of the building, singing about finishing the Yondaime's work. When they heard that, the ANBU pair stood on their way, but there were some chuunin and jounin mixed in the group, which made the battle a rather long one. After the group was dispersed, and some of the members of the mob were arrested, they went to check on the boy, only to find four civilians and a chuunin beating Naruto to death. Luckily, they stopped them on time, but the chuunin escaped with two of the civilians before they could be recognized. Amazingly, they boy's wounds were already curing themselves when his teammate Neko began the healing.

The Hokage's expression relaxed when he was told about Hino Motoko-san. She was, indeed, a trusted person for the Hokage, and she knew her kindness would help the boy, and her strength would protect him a bit. She was old, but, after all, in her prime she had been called "The Untouchable", because no enemy had been able to land a solid hit on her in her last thirty years of active service. After he approved of her taking care momentarily of the boy, Kakashi left to inform his partner of the news, leaving Sarutobi deep in thought about how he was going to deal with the situation…

**

* * *

12****th**** October, 7:15 AM, Road to the Academy**

It was a bright morning in Konoha, and Naruto was walking down the street with a face-splitting grin in his face. It was his first day of Academy, and he felt that it was going to be a nice day, though the glares he was receiving as he walked down the road weren't something that made it seem probable. Smiling, he remembered what had happened the day before…

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto woke up in the morning completely healed, something that didn't really surprise him. Somehow, since he was little, every wound or injury he had, even the big ones, cured themselves at a fast pace. Then he would feel a slight pain in his belly, but he always passed that off as hunger. The blond looked around him and looked shocked at an old woman who seemed to be dancing slowly in his living room. He looked at the beautiful dance for a moment before the woman suddenly stopped in the middle of a step and looked at him._

"_Who are you and why are you dancing in my living room?" the boy asked, slightly confused, scared and curious about the dance._

_The woman giggled a little and said kindly, "My name is Hino Motoko, and I'm here because some bad men ruined my sleep yesterday and I heard a noise here, so I came to make sure you were ok." Motoko looked at the now sad and scared boy and said, "Don't worry. They aren't here anymore. Now tell me, what's your name, my boy?"_

_The blond grinned brightly and introduced himself, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, 5 years old, and I'm gonna be the best Hokage ever! Believe it!" Motoko smiled at the boy's antics. "Ne, ne, obaa-san, can you teach me how to dance?"_

_The woman looked at him surprised, "Dance?"_

"_Yeah, like that dancing you were doing before. It was slow, but it was beautiful, and it somehow gave off a powerful sensation. I liked it very much!"_

_Motoko laughed at that. "That, Naruto-chan, is not a dance. It's a martial art called Tai Chi Chuan, or Supreme Ultimate Fist." Naruto's eyes glowed like the sun. Now he REALLY wanted to learn that. "If you want, I'm no teacher, but I can show you the basic katas."_

_Naruto spent that morning learning the katas of the cool-named martial art, which he seemed to adopt like a sponge. _'The boy has talent,' _Motoko thought, _'maybe I could teach him the martial art that earned me my nickname, Aikido. Time will tell…'

_To him, the old woman was really caring and kind and he enjoyed the time he spent with her. With the promise to teach him some more another day, she left the boy to keep 'dancing', as he called it, and cleaning the apartment._

**Flashback END**

Naruto's train of thought stopped when he arrived the Academy building. There was an instructor waiting for him already, a man with a chuunin jacket and a bandana covering his short silver hair. The man, who introduced himself as Mizuki-sensei, showed him to his new classroom.

The first boy he noticed in the class was a black-haired boy with strangely huge eyebrows and eyes so big it would have been comical if it wasn't for the sadness they bore. A simple glance around him showed him that the boy was being shunned for something he didn't know…

At the back of the class, there was another boy with long black hair. The thing that shocked Naruto the most was his eyes. They were pale white. Remembering something the Hokage had said once, he was probably a Hyuuga, an elite clan in Konoha with one of the strongest eye techniques in the world, the Byakugan. But there was something odd about him, Sarutobi-jii-chan had told him once that the family traits for practically all Hyuugas was white eyes, pale skin and the proverbial "longest stick in the world buried up their asses", which the boy in front of him didn't seem to have. Sure, he was serious, but he also seemed somewhat happy.

After his introduction speech in which he proclaimed his goal of becoming Hokage, which raised a few laughs between his new classmates and a strange look from Mizuki, he scanned the class for a while. Not seeing his friend there, he went to take one of the seats next to the super-eyebrows kid, who introduced himself as Rock Lee.

When the teacher turned his back to the class, the children could hear someone running through the corridor, and the door opened with a slam. "I'm sorry, am I late?" asked the girl that had just arrived. Green shinobi pants, white shirt, chocolate eyes, brown hair tied up in two buns… yeah, it was Tenten, all right.

"Just in time, Tenten-chan, but I'd appreciate it if you arrived early from now on. Class, this is the second new student today, Kirihana Tenten."

After a short introduction, Tenten smiled at the rest of the class, and that smile grew further when she saw Naruto waving at her. She ran to his side and sat down in the other free seat. When Mizuki-sensei turned again, she whispered to him, "Naruto, my parents want you to eat dinner today with us. Would you like to?"

"Of course, Tenten, I'd love to."

**

* * *

TIMESKIP – 6 YEARS

* * *

**

Naruto woke up early that morning and began his morning routine. After washing his face and having breakfast, he spent half an hour going through an advanced exercise of Tai Chi Chuan. After two years of training with his neighbor, she had found out the boy had almost mastered the form and katas of the style. The only thing he lacked was actual combat experience, but there wasn't anything she could do. Her old age prevented her from sparring with him during more than a few minutes, and he had been told to keep his taijutsu training a secret after a 'great' demonstration of the style he had been taught in the Academy. It held so many flaws that it could only have been sabotaged. Not that she told him anything about her suspicions. So she began his training in the forms of Aikido when the boy reached 8 years old.

After that, he read for a while a scroll on seals that Tenten's parents had given him for his last birthday. Tenten sure had lucked out with her parents. They were the owners of one of the most important ninja equipment stores in the village, the Wolf's Fang. That's how she got proficient in the use of storage seals, ranged weapons and various forms of kenjutsu. That girl loved weapons with a passion only comparable to her own adoptive parents'.

After seeing the seals the brunette used to hold the massive amount of weapons she used in combat, he grew curious about that branch of ninjutsu. He, of course, asked his 'jii-chan', about it, who was surprised about the sudden interest of the boy on fuuinjutsu. That surprise would only grow exponentially when he found that the boy actually had a hidden talent for seals, but it was only expectable, knowing after all who his parents were… maybe he should try giving the boy a sword, too. At his young age, he knew how to make some weak containment or barrier seals, storage seals, chakra storage seals and explosive seals.

There weren't many things that had changed in the last six years. The village kept treating him like shit, but the number of beatings he received was cut down a lot, thanks to the effort of the Hokage, his personal ANBU and the old woman. In school, the other children shunned him for some reason he didn't understand. The only ones who didn't treat him like that were some kouhai (namely Shikamaru Nara, Akimichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino (she actually liked most of the pranks the boy pulled), Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata, though the last one seemed actually impossible to talk to, since every time they tried to talk, she would faint or flee on sight), Lee, Neji (though at some point in third grade he seemed to have been given 'the stick'), and Tenten.

Tenten. Well, there was one thing that had changed. In many ways, she remained the same as ever. Petite, kind, caring, tomboyish… But he actually knew her cute side. Under an oath of silence, he had been shown to her room once during the weekly dinners at her home. Reigning over her bed was a huge, and I mean, HUGE, stuffed panda bear, almost as big as them when they were 9. When he said it was cute and it suited her, she chased him all around her house with 2 kunai in each hand, her face redder than the Sharingan. She kept changing her hairstyle every once in a while, but her favorite seemed to be the two tight buns. When he once asked her why it was, she went red-faced again and answered stammering and avoiding his gaze that it was because it was easy to move in while she was training. Other way, her thigh-long hair would most likely get in the way.

Naruto's mind side-tracked for a moment and suddenly an image of Tenten with her hair loose and flowing down her back appeared on his mind giving him a naughty look. Blushing a storm, he wondered where that came from. He didn't feel that way about his best friend… did he?

Anyway, he had to go to the Academy fast. Today was the day of their Gennin exam.

When he arrived, they were being called in alphabetic order. He arrived just when Kirihana Tenten was being called. He threw her a smile and told her, "See you later with our headbands!" Tenten flushed a little and went inside the room where they were being tested, determined to get her hitai-ate.

The gennin candidates kept being called for the exam until only Naruto was left. When he was called in, the first thing he noticed was that Mizuki wasn't there. Apparently, he had caught a bad cold and been replaced temporarily with the instructor of the 5th year, Umino Iruka. This was a good thing, as he was the only teacher that seemed to act normally around the blond boy, almost like a friend.

"Ok, Naruto, you are the last one here. You have already passed the taijutsu exam, but you seem to have failed the genjutsu one. But don't worry, if you pass the ninjutsu one, you will get your hitai-ate. The exam consists on a Kawarimi, a Henge," the blond smiled, those two jutsu were fairly easy, "and the Bunshin." His face fell. No matter how many times he tried to make a bunshin, he always failed hard.

Not one to worry about such things, he went through the two first parts of the exam without much difficulty, transforming into the Hokage and performing a Kawarimi with the teacher's chair, that wasn't currently in use. He took a deep breath and shouted, before the attentive gaze of the instructor, "Bunshin no Jutsu!"

* * *

It was noon in Konoha. In the Academy building, children were being praised by their parents and smiling like they had won the lottery. All of them save for four. Rock Lee, who was being praised instead by a jounin that looked like a big clone of him with overgrown eyebrows (even bigger than his younger clone's). Their voice filled the playground with a speech about FLAMES OF YOUTH that made all the ninja around cringe. Hyuuga Neji, who was receiving praises from his uncle Hiashi, but didn't pay him much attention. Kirihana Tenten, who was happy she had got her hitai-ate, but was more worried and sad about her best friend. And Uzumaki Naruto, who, faithful to the prospects, failed to make a good enough bunshin.

He was currently sitting down in the swings, his eyes concentrated on the floor. A moment later, Tenten excused herself from her parents and went over to Naruto. When she reached her side, he lifted his gaze at her and they stopped. Neither of them knew what to say at the moment. Suddenly, Naruto's face broke in a grin and said "I'm glad, Tenten-chan. I knew you would make it without trouble."

The brunette couldn't take it anymore and put her arms around Naruto's chest and cried on his shoulder. The boy was caught on surprise, and when he reacted, he returned her embrace, and, holding her face with his hand, he whispered, "Don't worry, Tenten-chan. I'm okay, and you don't have anything to cry about."

Still sobbing, the girl tried to talk, "But… But Na- Naruto… kun… you…"

"I'm alright. So what? I don't have a headband? I'll get it some time. I'm just too good a ninja, so they want me to teach the next batch. So don't worry. Next year, we'll meet and I'll be the best Gennin of Konoha. Believe it!"

Tenten hugged him tighter and kept crying for a few minutes more. Once she felt better, she slowly pushed away from his soaked orange jacket, neither of them wanting to break the embrace, but they were already attracting many weird looks that added to the constant glares the boy kept feeling. Her parents called for her and she left, leaving him seated again in the swing, down and out.

Another figure approached him some time later, and he looked up to see Iruka's face. "Don't worry, Naruto. I have seen your other exams, and I'm sure you'll make it next year. Come on, I'll treat you to ramen."

The boy smiled and followed the young man to their favourite stand to share a few bowls of delicious noodles. Luckily for Iruka's wallet, Naruto was inwardly depressed, so he ate only 5 bowls, saving it from a sure death.

That night, he went to bed thinking about the new training he would begin the next day. He had promised Tenten that he would be the best gennin of Konoha when he came out of Academy in a year's time.

And Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha never breaks a promise.

* * *

**AAAAAAAAAND CUT!** **Woah, 7500+ words, but I just started writing and ideas kept flooding my mind. This chapter was originally going to be just a summary of what would happen after the TimeSkip, and look what has happened. Even a new OC has been born (Anyone who figures out what manga did the idea for the OC pop out from gets a cyber-cookie).**

**R&R! Oh, and I need ideas for a sword for Naruto and Tenten. Flames will be used to overpower Natsu.**

**Ja ne!**


	3. Gennin Exams

**Before the start, Author Notes.**

**I wanted to upload this chapter before Wednesday, because I'm going to Portugal for a week, so don't expect new chapters for some time. **

**I got delayed on this chapter because, simply, I don't know how to continue after this. I have two options that I don't want to let out, because they can blow a few minds… I have to thank Fox-sama for making me think about them. PS: Fox-sama, I don't think I'll be doing a harem simply because I don't think I can cope with it, even with only two girls.**

**About the swords thing… Forget it :P I don't think Naruto should carry a sword, he already has two martial arts that make him virtually untouchable.**

**Codenamed-Bolt, if you think you know what I want to do with Motoko (no one has figured out where she's inspired from yet, or they haven't told me), please tell me. Sincerely, I only have one thing I want to do with her, and that's why there's an additional sensei in Naruto's life in the first place. She hasn't taught him an elemental bunshin simply because she's not interested in his ninjutsu. He's only a kid, and she doesn't think he's ready for it.**

**Narudevilfan, I expect this chapter shows why the end of the 2****nd**** chapter is like that.**

**Author Notes over, Fic starts.

* * *

**

Naruto had his nerves on edge. It was this day again: the day he would take an exam where it would be decided if he finally met the requirements to become a proud Leaf Gennin. He still remembered with sorrow that same day last year where he had been denied the right to graduate in his best friend's class. And it was all because of that four times damnable Bunshin no Jutsu, which execution remained a complete mystery to the blond boy up to date.

That day was burned in his memory. The happiness of being with Tenten-chan. The nervousness in the queue to take the various tests. The pride he felt when he went through the taijutsu exam without many problems… It's true, he was lucky that he didn't have to fight with neither Neji, who got the Academy title of 'Rookie of the Year' (along with Naruto's Special Prize, the 'Stick-in-the-Ass of the Year') nor Lee, who turned out to be a Taijutsu prodigy. But still, it made him proud. The written exam didn't matter too much to him; he knew it was a lost battle from the get-go. And then, all went to hell in a few moments. Two deformed clones that didn't even look human (but would never pass as an advanced Bunshin + Henge combination, not that he didn't try) got him a one-way ticket to going through last year of Academy again.

He could still remember the ill pressure on his chest when he felt Tenten hugging him while crying. It felt as if a cold hand was trying to grab his heart and tug it out of his chest. There were few things he hated: perverts, rapists and, on the top of his list, a woman's tears. He hated seeing a woman cry, no woman should ever be sad under any circumstance, and whenever he saw a woman crying, the little gentleman inside of him would make him do anything to stop the tears from falling. That hate grew exponentially when the ones pouring tears were those two chocolate orbs he knew from so many years ago. So he steeled his heart with determination, he put on the best of his happy and carefree masks, and promised her he would pass the next year as the best gennin in the Leaf.

But if he thought that had been a bad moment in his life, it was nothing compared to what was waiting for him later that afternoon.

* * *

_Naruto was walking down the streets of Konoha with an arm around Tenten's shoulders, behind the girl's parents. She felt better now that she had let some tears flow freely and Naruto had made her that promise. In her life with the blond boy, she had known the boy kept every promise he made, so she held no doubt that next year he would be a gennin just like her, or even better. But it still frustrated her. She had wished to graduate and be on the same team as Naruto, doing missions together and travelling around the world together. Now, with the blond out of the equation, and knowing how the team-making worked in the village, it was practically sure she was going to be teamed with Neji and Lee. Perfect. A stuck-up pretty boy and… Lee. Just… perfect. _

_She stole a glance to the boy at her side. She saw for a moment the worried look in his eyes while he looked forward. She saw the serious expression that showed that he had actually been hurt with the results of the exam. But as the moment flew by, blue eyes fixed in her as he threw her a warm smile, one that almost seemed true to her eyes. She returned the little smile, gaining a smirk from her parents ahead, who knew everything that was happening behind their backs as if it were just in front of their noses. Both children looked the happiest when they were with each other, and it was something that warmed their hearts._

_When they arrived at the Higurashi's house, they invited Naruto to come in, but he excused himself almost politely and left to his house. The adults understood the blond boy: he just wanted to stay some time by himself to think about how things had gone._

_When he was leaving, Junpei stopped the boy in his tracks. "Naruto, wait just a moment please." When the boy stopped, he took him to a side to make sure the girls didn't listen to the conversation. His daughter would probably cry again._

"_Naruto, I have something I want to give you." At this, the boy looked at him confused. He took out two scrolls from his pockets and gave them to the blond. "Now, open the black scroll and release the big seal."_

_Obediently, Naruto unrolled the black scroll and found a big storage seal surrounded by some smaller ones. He applied some chakra over the big seal with the kanji 'Slash' and, after the smoke cloud dispersed, in his hand was a black short sword._

_Now, Naruto didn't know much more about swords than what he had heard from Tenten's continuous rants about different weapons, but he could only think the sword was beautiful. The sword was, in short, a deadly looking and slightly long wakizashi. The hilt was jet black with two intercrossing tapes, bright yellow under blood red, running along the grip. The guard were two thin yet resistant lines of steel bent to look like two 'S', giving the guard a spiral shape. The blade was dark silver color, but if light reflected in the correct angle, it took a darker tone, like a dark crimson. On the base of the blade there were two seals engraved in a golden color. One of them he could make out the meaning of, but the other one was completely unknown for the blond. All in all, the 25 inches long blade made Naruto's eyes sparkle in emotion at the sight of such a blade. His eyes shifted from the sword to the man that had just given it to him._

"_Why?" was the only thing the young boy could say. Why the man had given him a sword when he hadn't used one in his whole life. Why giving him a expensive and powerful looking one at that?_

"_Don't even mention it. I was planning to give it to you for graduating, but… Anyway, I think you could use some more training if you are going to be the best gennin next year. And there are not that many kenjutsu specialists in Konoha, so it could give you some kind of advantage, I think."_

"_As you may have noticed, there are some seals in the sword. One of them is a chakra channeling seal, which means that you can push chakra into the sword to make it harder, stronger… It depends on your abilities. The other seal is a special weapon seal. It will make it harder than diamond, so don't worry, it won't break before potentially any attack. In the other scroll there is a training routine for your sword. Unfortunately, I can't teach you any specific style, because one, that's something you have to choose for yourself and two, I don't know any." Naruto face faulted. "In the other seals you will find some training weights that will help you grow stronger. Any questions?"_

_It took all of 10 seconds for the blond to actually take in all that had happened. When he realized that he still stood there dumbfounded with a new sword in his hands, he dropped it and jumped at the man in front of him, giving him a hug that expressed the gratitude words that couldn't find the way out of his mouth. Junpei smiled and patted his head._

_When the boy calmed down, he said, "Arigatou, Junpei-san. I'll make good use of it." He finished with a smile. "I promise."

* * *

_

The blond still remembered fondly that day. Partly because of that, but another reason being it had been one of the last times he had spent time with Tenten. After that, he went another time to have dinner with them, but the atmosphere had been so tense that it made it uncomfortable for everyone. Though he was normally cheerful and always tried to put a smile in the ones that surrounded him, Naruto could only think about that exam that held him a year back while Tenten passed and made gennin. All topics of conversation ended inevitably in ninjas, at which point Naruto would look down and the brunette's eyes tried to suppress the tears. She felt really bad about Naruto, she knew about his dream of being the strongest ninja in Konoha, and the girl felt so sad about him that she had cried herself to sleep the day of her own graduation.

When dinner ended that day, Naruto helped with the dishes as fast as he could and then turned to leave after saying goobye. Tenten held him at the door, and he could still clearly remember the conversation they had.

* * *

"_Tenten-chan… I'm sorry. I'm really happy for your graduation, believe me. It's just that… I think I wanted to become a ninja with you…"_

"_Naruto-kun…" the brunette whispered._

"_But don't worry… I'm training like there's no tomorrow, and… I'm sure I'll make it next year."_

_The girl hugged him tightly at the chest, and the surprised blond took a little time to come out of his astonishment and enveloped with his arms the brunette's shoulders under the pigtails she had chosen to wear that day. "Don't get hurt, Naruto-kun. I know you, and you'll probably get hurt training like crazy. I know you'll make it. I believe in you."_

_After a while, they broke the embrace and Naruto left hurriedly, so Tenten couldn't see the tears that had begun flowing from his eyes. He ran to his apartment at a speed only comparable to that of a certain brunette running up the stairs in her home to get to her bedroom, as she felt the dams were beginning to break.

* * *

_

... Tenten… He wanted to see her, but he had promised himself that he would see her again when he was wearing a hitai-ate. He held no doubt he would make it that year. He had trained himself to the ground day after day, seeing as the things he read in history or maths books refused to stay in his head. He just wasn't book-smart. That's not to say that he wasn't intelligent, being one of the few people in Konoha able to drive Nara Shikamaru to a stalemate in shogi, to the astonishment of said boy. Most of his classmates thought that he had cheated in some way.

That was a thing he had conflicted feelings about: he had been put in the same class as most of his other friends. He was happy, he had fun with Kiba and Chouji, and Shikamaru was… well… Shikamaru. Once you got to know her, Hinata was actually a really nice person: kind, supportive, rather pretty… she was the perfect model of a cute and shy little sister. Said girl, on her part, had finally gained courage to talk to the blond. Sure, it had taken her until halfway through the academy year to do it, but when they could actually get to know each other better, they began to see each other as a kind sibling who they could talk to without worries. The only thing that worried the boy was if she was going to drop of her shyness and stuttering, not that he minded too much. It was one of the things that made her a 'really cute imouto', as he himself had put it once.

Another person that had changed that year was Ino. She had finally opened her eyes and completely dropped her fangirl tendencies on time. The blond boy's proximity and the continuous jokes (which were 100% based on truth) about the raven-haired emo, most of them about his sexuality (or lack thereof) and his emo personality, had made her realize that she had been making an error when she fawned around the avenger. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw that the brooder didn't mind if she was still around. In his gray mind, there were still enough girls to accomplish his plans. One or two of them less wouldn't make a difference. Not that he had any other interest in them, anyway. The two blonds were spending much more time together now, and what scared Naruto was that some of the things she usually did to Sasuke had found a new objective: him.

Now again, Naruto had feelings for his blonde classmate, but those feelings didn't go past those of good friends, a little more if anything, but not enough for him to return the advances that Ino seemed to be making at him. He wasn't the brightest of people when it came down to feelings, but hell, when a girl just throws herself at you every time you enter in her vision field, that usually meant something…

Still, he had to thank Ino for that. Apart from making his extra year much brighter, he had finally realized something. When he was with her, most of her actions made his mind wander to his memories of embracing Tenten, training with her to become shinobi, playing with her… and he imagined himself with Tenten again, smiling, running a hand through her silky hair while she had her arms around him. And that warmed his heart and sent a peaceful sensation through his whole body. When he compared the moments he spent with Tenten with those with Ino and other girls, he realized that the thing the Sandaime and the Higurashi couple had predicted so long ago had come true. He loved her. As simple as that, and yet so complicated.

There wasn't a thing he loved more than the rest about the chocolate-eyed girl. Her cute and girly side hidden by her being a tomboy. Her deep brown eyes that always seemed so full of life. The way she laughed with a simple joke. Her expression when she was scheming something, even when he knew he was going to become a victim. There were so many things that Naruto could make a list as tall as him.

But enough day-dreaming already. It was time to go to the Academy and he was beginning to run late. He finally got out of bed and took a short shower. When he came out, he checked himself in the mirror. Short unruly blond hair, check. Whisker marks, check. The training of the last years and a more-or-less well-balanced diet (he still missed Tenten's mother's homemade dinners, but he had learned to cook some things) had finally gotten him to a decent height of 5'1". His training in Tai Chi Chuan and Aikido (which he was on the way of mastering the most advanced katas of) had given a well-toned athlete look, without excessive muscle anywhere in his visible anatomy. But still, one of the most important things he had learned from Motoko-sensei was the fact that a ninja always had to deceive his enemies to hide his true strength. And his look did that to the perfection. An orange and black track suit that gave him a ninja look, but still didn't make him look like a serious ninja, was the perfect attire for a man who had almost mastered two martial arts that, if taken lightly, would mean a world of hurt for his enemies.

He got dressed completing his attire with a dark blue plain headband that held back his unruly hair from his eyes, and strapped his wakizashi over his shoulder. He had gone over the basic katas Junpei had told him about so many times they were automatic, but it was still the equivalent of the Academy Taijutsu Style they taught in the Academy: it was full of holes, but it served to get away some times. That's why he was decided to use the Wakizashi just as a last defense resource.

He left in a rush for the Academy, after stopping for a while at Motoko's because she had wanted to give him some good luck charms. Not that he believed in them, but it's always better to have them than not.

When he arrived 5 minutes later (the fact that Motoko had decided to teach him wall-walking this last year had helped him greatly in more ways than one), he found his friends waiting for him in the classroom's door. When he arrived, he sensed a presence coming at a fast pace in his direction and he sighed and waited for what was coming. Undoubtedly, 3'5 seconds later he was tackled to the ground from behind by a happy Ino, who was now rubbing her face in his back. It would always remain a mystery to him how a girl much lighter and shorter than him could throw him around like that… maybe she was stronger than she let out, too…

He wished good luck to his classmates (getting a good luck kiss in the cheeks from Hinata and Ino, which made him blush in a way that reminded the older generations of the hair of a certain deceased kunoichi) and went inside the classroom, where Iruka-sensey was giving outs the sheets with the exam. The blond automatically got ready to take the written test… and fail miserably. He left the room without any real hope of having passed that damn test. Two left, and he had to pass those two if he wanted to become a gennin.

In the taijutsu field, Mizuki-sensei was waiting for them to come and take the second exam. His plans went to hell last year, as even evil masterminds like him (yes, he actually saw himself like that) caught colds. But this year nothing would go wrong, and he would make sure of that. He had to make the demon brat fail the gennin exam again, so he could set his plan in motion. Making the dead-last of the class fail an exam wouldn't be so hard, but it was always better to be prepared for anything. So he tweaked a bit with the combat roster and set up the demon against the Uchiha. Iruka would be overseeing the test, so he wouldn't be able to fail the boy right from the start as he had planned from the beginning, so setting him against the stronger kid in the class was the next best option.

Naruto almost slumped when he saw who he was going to fight with… the emo-teme. As much as he didn't like to admit, the sure winner of this 'Stick-in-the-Ass of the Year' edition was strong. The faulty Academy style he had been taught over the years (despite Tenten's efforts of correcting the flaws) wouldn't be enough to win this battle.

Sasuke saw the 'dobe' of the class looking at the roster wide-eyed and asked with an arrogant smirk in the face, "What's up, dobe? Are you afraid you have to face off with a mighty Uchiha?"

Now Naruto actually slumped to the ground. How big could that idiot's ego be? Getting up, he answered, "Yeah, teme. I'm afraid I'll have to give you a reasonable piece of Naruto-chan's special humble pie", he said, cracking his fingers. "Now, open your mouth and say 'Aaaaah'."

As they were making their way to the field where they would be sparring Shino brought out a box from seemingly nowhere and said, "Bets anyone?"

Kiba searched in his pockets and said, "100 ryo here says Naruto is going to kick Sasuke's ass."

Sakura, who was the girl nearest to him, hit him in the head. "What are you saying, dog-boy? I'm betting 100 ryo that my Sasuke-kun beats the dobe."

"Not a chance, forehead. I'm sure Naruto-kun will win. 200 ryo say so."

"Ino-buta, don't be stupid. Sasuke-kun is much stronger than a simple dead-last."

The blonde smirked. "Let's find out, billboard brow. Let's find out."

Almost all the girls (Sasuke's Fan Club), bet on Sasuke, leaving Kiba, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji and Hinata as the only ones who bet for the blond.

When Iruka arrived, Mizuki began. "Ok, kids, now I'll tell you the details of the exam. It will be a series of only-taijutsu matches that will go on until K.O., or until we call the match when one of the two or both contenders has proved himself worthy of a passing grade. The usage of ninjutsu, kenjutsu or genjutsu will be punished with failing the grade. However, you can use small ninja weapons such as kunai, shuriken and traps. Try not to kill your adversary… unless it's necessary." He muttered the last part giving a hard glare at Naruto. "Now, let's begin with the first match. Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, one step to the front."

Said boys got up and went to the training field and stood 20 feet away from each other. Sasuke immediately slipped into his family stance, confident that it wouldn't take long to beat the blond to the ground. "What are you waiting for, dobe?"

Naruto, on the other part, was relaxing. The style of combat he decided to use was based in counter-attacks, so he would have to read his opponent's movements. That would be hard, because he didn't have much combat experience with his style, but an angry and arrogant opponent was an easy to read opponent. He slowly slipped into the basic stance of Tai Chi Chuan. Legs opened ahead and behind his body at a little more than shoulder-width, to allow him to move his upper body more easily, and palms ahead of him to stop the attacks that came.

Some of the children looking the match gasped at Naruto. Shikamaru turned to look at Hinata, who was staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "Hinata, isn't that your family's Jyuuken?"

The Hyuuga heiress shook her head, still trying to read the blond's stance. "No, it isn't, though it's very similar. Our Jyuuken is a mixture of other taijutsu styles, and I think the one Naruto-kun has is one of those original styles: Taiji Quan. If Naruto-kun has really mastered that style, and so it seems, Sasuke is screwed."

Now everyone in the class was staring at Hinata with their mouths on the floor. She had just talked. No, scratch that, she had made a goddamn speech with stuttering! It seemed that the mixture of surprise, confusion and amazement she was feeling had made her forget everything around her apart from the blond she was staring at. When the speech made its way completely into their heads, they turned again to watch a combat that was going to be interesting.

Sasuke was getting impatient. The combat had started minutes ago and the boy in front of him was making a single move. "Come on, dobe, are you going to try and attack me or are you too scared I could beat you in a second?"

The blond, still in the same stance, smirked and said, "Ladies first, teme."

That was the last straw. Angry, Sasuke drew three shuriken from his pouch and threw him at the blond, who moved slightly to get out of the path of the two first and then caught the last one with his left hand in a swift movement. Showing the raven-haired boy the weapon in his hand, he said, "What's up, duck-ass? You'll have to do much better to get me."

Enraged because of the comment about his hair, which caused most of the class to chuckle, he charged straight against the blonde, who just moved away from most of his attacks. Straight, jab, hook, high kick, roundhouse, everything he tried the blond just parried or dodged. His movements were getting sloppy with frustration. "Stop dodging me, dobe!" said the Uchiha, throwing a right straight to his neck.

"My pleasure." Naruto launched his left hand to block the straight and, with a graceful movement of his right arm, he threw his opponent's hand to the right. With the sudden change in his gravity center, Naruto took advantage of that single moment of surprise and put his left arm behind his neck and the right arm on his stomach. With a low step-like kick, the Uchiha felt his world turn as he fell on his back to the ground. The blond finished the execution with a stomp to the side of his downed opponent that made him roll on his back, holding with his hands the place where he had been kicked. Naruto sat in his chest and took a kunai from his own pouch and held it to the Uchiha's neck. "Mizuki-sensei, Iruka-sensei, call the match."

When the chuunin instructors came out of the amazement they had fallen in while watching the dance-like combat the blond had starred in, Iruka stepped in and called Naruto the winner of the match, making the onlookers go wild. Sasuke's fangirls were running to the side of the Uchiha to help him up, while Sakura tried to punch Naruto since she still thought he had cheated in some kind of strange way, because there was absolutely no way in hell that the dead-last was better than her Sasuke-kun. Ino, however, caught her punch before she could even get near Naruto, and they decided to start early their fight, where Ino arose victorious.

Naruto ignored all of this and sat down near his imouto to watch the next matches. He had passed that exam, but there was still another exam left. And he had only one hope. _"Let it not be in the exam, let it not be in the exam…"

* * *

_

In the early afternoon, the gennin candidates were waiting in the hallway for one of their instructors to call them into the classroom to take the exam. When he arrived he found Sasuke resting against a wall. As he passed in front of him, he was stopped by a voice. "Hey, dobe."

Naruto sighed. This wasn't going to end well, he could see it. "What's up, duck-ass? Still sore from losing and failing the test earlier?"

Sasuke growled. "For your information, I still passed the exam. And you should be honored. I'm willing to let you teach me that style you used earlier."

Naruto, not wanting to make a scene, just opted to ignore him, but he was stopped again when the Uchiha grabbed him by his collar. "Oi, who do you think you are? I'm an Uchiha, while you are just trash. You should be worshiping the very soil I step on."

The blond couldn't take anymore bullshit and answered his words with an uppercut that sent him flying a few feet. "I'm sorry if I hit you too hard and made you forget, but this 'trash' beat you fair and square. Not everything is going to be served to you in a silver platter, Uchiha," he said, almost spitting his name. After that, he went with the rest of the class, who was looking at him as if he had grown another head, except for Kiba and Ino, who were cheering for him.

Time went by, and the children kept getting called to take the exam in alphabetical order. Almost an hour later, there were only Uzumaki Naruto and Yamanaka Ino left. Five minutes passed by, Sasuke finished his exam and Naruto was called to enter the classroom, but he was stopped in his tracks.

"Naruto-kun…" The blond stopped and turned to look at the light blue eyes of his classmate. "Can I talk to you after the exam? I wanted to tell you something…"

Naruto smiled and said, "Sure, Ino. I'll be going now. I have an exam to pass."

The blonde nodded. "Hn. Good luck, Naruto-kun."

Naruto stepped into the class. Iruka and Mizuki were sitting next to each other. Iruka stood up and said, "Ok, Naruto, you have it easy. It's the exact same exam as last year. Kawarimi, Henge and Bunshin."

The blond gulped and his face dropped. He felt like crying at the moment. It didn't matter how much he tried, he just couldn't do the Bunshin right. In a good day, he pulled it almost a third of the times he used it. He shifted his gaze to the playground outside, where the other passing students bragged about their new ninja status. His eyes widened and he smiled when he saw a familiar head with two buns on top. He steeled his resolve. He had to pass. He had the determination to do so.

Unfortunately, determination doesn't trump shitty chakra control. The results of the exam were exactly the same as last year. When he saw the result of his failed jutsu, he looked at Iruka and Mizuki, who were shaking their heads.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," said Iruka, "but I can't pass you without that technique."

The blond felt his eyes swelling with tears. Not wanting anybody to see him cry, he ran out of the classroom through the window and ran to the rooftop of the academy. From there, he could see what he most didn't want to see at the moment. A certain brunette was standing under the shade of a tree, resting against the bark with her hands behind her body. Her chocolate eyes were fixed on the door, waiting for him to come out, grinning like a mad man and wearing a hitai-ate in his forehead. Her face dropped when the next person who came out the door was a girl with her long platinum blond hair in a ponytail who looked like she was looking for somebody. She knew that girl. Yamanaka Ino, one of her and Naruto's friends from the academy. She thought for a while and realized that Naruto should have come out before her, but he hadn't. With a last sad glance at the door, Kirihana Tenten left the academy grounds and went to her home, unknowingly leaving a crying Naruto in the rooftop.

Half an hour later, the last of the students (a certain platinum blonde who had been waiting for Naruto to come out, but left sadly, thinking that he hadn't waited for her and he had left already) had gone home, but Naruto was still sitting in the rooftop, knees on his chest. Suddenly, something casted a shadow over him. Looking up, he saw Mizuki-sensei looking down at him. "Yo!"

"Hello, Mizuki-sensei."

"Do you have a moment?"

"Sure. It's not like I have anyone waiting for me at home."

Mizuki sat with him. "Hey, Naruto. What do you think of Iruka-kun?"

"Well, he is cool. He treats me to ramen some times, but I hate it that he looks like he just won't let me pass. Sure, they were badly formed, but they were three clones."

Mizuki looked at him and smiled. "You can't blame him. He is serious, but it's because he lost his parents when he was little. If he doesn't let you pass, I think it's because he wants you to be strong."

Naruto shouted angrily, "But I am strong, already. I beat Sasuke, the rookie of the year."

"Yes, you beat him in taijutsu. But if you had faced him in ninjutsu or genjutsu, he could have wiped the floor with you." Naruto looked down. He knew it was true, he didn't know any jutsu other than Henge and Kawarimi. And he seriously doubted his infamous Oiroke no Jutsu would work on the Uchiha boy.

A few moments passed with Mizuki examining the boy's expression. "Naruto… did you want to graduate that badly?"

"Are you kidding? I have a promise to fulfill. I'd do anything to graduate this year."

Mizuki smirked. "Just what I wanted to hear. Naruto, did you know about the special secondary exam?"

* * *

Night over Konohagakure. In the woods at the west of the city, a blond boy was running through the forest with a big scroll in his hands. Getting into the Hokage residence had been fairly easy for a boy who had been able to paint the Hokage monument without getting caught for more than 3 hours. He'd thank Tenten forever for her dares; they helped improve his stealth. The only moment Naruto actually feared his success was when, just before getting the scroll, he was caught by the Hokage.

Luckily for him, the Hokage was a man, and a perverted one at that. That made him the perfect target for the strongest jutsu ever invented against men. An Oiroke no Jutsu later, the most powerful man in the Fire Country laid over a pool of his own blood, his nose still dripping.

Naruto stopped in the clearing that Mizuki-sensei had told him about. Apparently, if he was there with the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage residence at 23:00, he would make gennin. The chuunin instructor had told him it was an infiltration and retrieval mission that qualified as a secondary gennin test. And he wanted to become a ninja more than anything in the world.

The blond boy looked at his frog watch. 19:00. He still had 4 hours ahead until Mizuki arrived to check on the results. He considered his options. He could go back to the village to wait, but he would have the eyes of the whole village on him, as always. That would make it hard to go unnoticed if someone wanted to get the scroll from him. So the village was out of the question.

He could explore the forest and train a little, but he didn't want to risk getting lost and not being in the clearing at the agreed place for the end of the mission.

On the other hand… he had in his hands a secret scroll full of strong jutsu. How bad would be to sneak a little peek in? Maybe he could even learn one or two. His chat earlier with Mizuki had made him realize he was right. He didn't know any jutsu that would help him in battle and, while he was extremely proud of his Oiroke no Jutsu, it wouldn't be effective in all situations, and he didn't want to be known all over the world in a future as the "Perverted Kage".

Determined, he opened the scroll and began to read. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. "DAMN! Of all the jutsus in the whole world that could have been in this scroll, I had to get a goddamned BUNSHIN!" Still, he kept reading. 'The Kage Bunshin is a special kind of Bunshin. While normal bunshin are just a genjutsu and, as such, in…intan…' _'Damn, how was this word read?' _'…intangible, the Kage Bunshin makes real, palpable copies of the caster of the jutsu, with all of his mental capabilities and current strength.' _'Hmmm… this jutsu could actually be useful. Mental exhaustion, disperse on a single hit, yada yada… I don't care. Just show me how it's done! Ah, here it is!'_

The blond put his index and middle fingers of both hands in a cross like figure, focused his chakra and shouted, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"**. When the cloud of smoke dispersed he looked at his side and… sweatdropped. In the floor laid a blanched copy of him, looking as if a steamroller had passed over him. Frustrated, he kicked it in the head and it disappeared in another cloud of smoke. _'Well, at least it is tangible. Let's keep trying.'

* * *

_

At 23:00, Iruka, who had been looking for Naruto since he had heard about the incident, arrived at the clearing where Naruto was. He was sitting down against a tree, with the forbidden Scroll in his hands. "Naruto, do you have any idea of what you have done?"

Naruto was surprised for a moment, but he thought that Iruka was the one he had to report for the mission-exam. "Hehehe, of course. I'm awesome, aren't I?"

Iruka was getting more and more annoyed, but he knew the blond to a certain extent. He wouldn't do something like that as a prank. Painting the academy building bright yellow with orange spots all over, that was more like him. But stealing an important scroll? No, that wasn't his modus operandi. "Tell me, Naruto, why did you did that?"

"Eh? Wasn't I supposed to? I'm sorry, then." asked Naruto, confused.

Now was Iruka's turn to be confused. "Wh- What do you mean?"

"Yeah, I know the mission only involved getting the scroll and bringing it here, but seeing as I got here early, I trained for a bit and learned one of the jutsu there. Please, if I wasn't supposed to, I'm sorry, but don't fail me, please."

Iruka was surprised at the blond boy in front of him. "You mean you have learned one of the jutsu inside the Forbidden Scroll."

"Yeah! If you want I can show you."

Iruka was looking interested at him when he heard something tearing the air towards them. Jumping, he took Naruto in his arms and jumped away, just an instant before a barrage of kunai buried in the ground where they had been standing. "Show yourself!" shouted the instructor as he landed.

"Well, well, well, you sure did well, brat." said the figure on top of a branch. His silver hair was covered with a bandana and on his back rested two big shuriken. "I see you have the scroll. But I didn't expect you to be caught by Iruka. Doesn't matter. Just one more person that will be "MIA" at the end of the day. Now, brat, hand me over the Forbidden Scroll and I won't hurt you… much." said Mizuki, with an evil glint in his eye.

"Mizuki!" shouted Iruka, taking out a kunai. "Explain yourself. Why did you do this?"

"There's no point on explaining my perfect plan to a dead man and a demon." Naruto's eyes darkened when he was called that. He was confused at the turn of events, and he held the scroll like a life line. "Oh, I see you still don't know the truth."

"Mizuki, don't!" Iruka was stopped when one of the shuriken that had been in Mizuki's back came flying towards him. He jumped to the side, but he met a barrage of kunai that came flying to his position. As much as he tried to dodge or block them, he still was hit by a few.

"Don't you know why you are hated, brat? Why people ignore you or beat you? It's because you should be killed. In fact, you should have been dead twelve years ago. Why your life is like hell? It's because you should live in hell and never come out of it." At this point, Naruto was trembling, and holding his head in his hands.

"Twelve years ago, The Kyuubi was defeated by our hero, the Yondaime Hokage. But nothing can kill an immortal demon, so there was only one thing he could do. Make it mortal, in the shape of a newborn boy." Naruto opened his eyes, wishing to every god that could exist that the words he feared wouldn't come out of Mizuki's lips. But they did. "That boy is you, brat. You are the Kyuubi no Youko."

Naruto took off running through the forest, tears in his eyes. He couldn't believe it, he didn't want to believe it… but it made so much sense… Mizuki recovered his lost shuriken and chased him. The seeds had been planted, now he wouldn't resist to his death.

The chase continued until, fifteen minutes later, the blond boy tripped with a root. He looked up and saw the silver-haired chuunin over him on a branch. "Your time has arrived." he said, and he threw one of his special shuriken at the boy, who covered himself and closed his eyes, waiting for the flesh-tearing impact… that never came.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and they met with the brown eyes of Iruka, who was covering him from the impact and now had a big shuriken buried in his back. "Naruto…"

"Why? Why did you do it… for me?"

"Because you are you. You are not the demon who killed my parents that damned night. You are Uzumaki Naruto, a proud member of the Leaf who cares about his friends. And anyone who says otherwise can kiss my ass. You are the jailor, not the prisoner. And I believe in you." When he said that, Iruka slipped off his feet and fell to the ground. Naruto was still standing, though the tears in his eyes had begun falling faster than before.

"Truly moving. A perfect act. It's almost a pity I have to drop the curtain." Mizuki grabbed his remaining shuriken and walked calmly over Naruto. "Farewell, demon."

Naruto glared at Mizuki, who was walking to him holding a shuriken. He wouldn't die. He had to get revenge on him. He had hurt one of his important people, one that accepted him for who he was. When Mizuki dropped the shuriken on him, he brought an arm up and, swiftly, made the blow fall at his side, dodging it completely and slipping into a battle stance. "What? That style again?"

"Try again, bastard." Mizuki launched a hard side kick at Naruto, who caught it with a hand, turned and launched a counter with his backhand at the chuunin's face.

"You are beginning to anger me, brat." Mizuki was officially pissed off. He threw a punch straight to the blond's face, who reacted automatically. Left hand over the punch, right hand under the elbow, a single movement and… _CRACK_. He was rewarded with the sound of Mizuki's elbow snapping. "AAAGH! YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!" Mizuki pulled out a kunai and charged at him.

"You are not deserving of being finished with Aikido, either. Guess I'll use this." The blond formed a cross-like seal with his hands and shouted: "**Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**"

The forest around them erupted in a cloud of smoke and, when it dispersed, over 300 perfect copies of Naruto stood in the branches and the floor. "So what? I see you finally managed to do Bunshin. Not that it will help you."

"Think again." Mizuki was surprised to say the least when one of the copies that were near to him pushed him to the center of the group and other one stopped him with a punch. _'They're real?' _He hadn't yet finished thinking that when five Narutos shouted "Get him!"

The following scene could only be referred to as a one-sided beating. The Kage Bunshin surrounded the traitor in a second and began punching, kicking and headbutting him without pause. Whenever Mizuki reacted enough to dispel one of the clones, another would take its place in an instant, making it so that no less than 10 Narutos were beating him at the same time. Iruka could only watch from the ground as the blond clones kept beating his former comrade to a bloody pulp, wondering if he was still the same blond boy that couldn't get a single bunshin right.

Twenty minutes later, Naruto felt it had been enough, and all the remaining clones dispelled, leaving him a little light-headed, which he attributed to the smoke cloud. When he recovered, he looked for Iruka and found him resting against a tree. "Naruto, come here, please."

Naruto approached him and he was told, "Close your eyes." The blond boy did as said and he felt something wrapping around his head that felt a little heavy on the front. "Now, open them."

When he opened his eyes, he found himself face to face with a smiling, scar-faced Iruka, who Naruto saw had sweat covering his forehead… Wait a minute… Forehead? The jinchuuriki reached up with his hands and he felt a band of cloth surrounding his head, with a metal plate in the front. With his fingers, he slowly traced the carving in the plate, recognizing instantly the familiar sign of a leaf and a spiral. "Congratulations, Uzumaki Naruto, gennin of Konoha."

Iruka couldn't say anymore, as he was tackled by the blond boy and pinned to the tree behind him, while he thanked him once and again. He felt glad that he had pulled of the shuriken from his back and bandaged the wound while Naruto fought. Otherwise, the sensation would have been much more painful than it currently was, and certainly, not as much pleasurable.

* * *

"I see… so he actually did it." The old man who had been watching the scene unfold through his crystal ball sighed and then began laughing softly. A moment later, the laughter was loud enough to awake his neighbors; luckily, he was in his workplace and nobody would be sleeping there, or they shouldn't be. Taking his pipe, he stood up and faced the portraits of the four men who had worked in that same office at some point of its history. He stopped in front of the last one: a blond handsome man with piercing blue eyes and a smile on his face. "The kid's growing, and with his friends, he will grow to be a fine man. He's strong and noble. He could actually become a fine heir for the seat… don't you think, Minato?"

* * *

**And it's over! Finally! I swear that at first, this chapter was only going to be 3k words or so, just a little chapter between the academy and the genin team, but the plot demon bit my fingers one by one and they kept writing against my will! **

**Don't be worried because Tenten hasn't been in scene too much. I think it's better like this, and you will get a fair share of Tenten, Naruto and fluff at due time. Or maybe you will get a little surprise, I don't know… kukukuku…**

**As always, review, flame, do what you want. I'm gladly surprised with this fic: 27 reviews, and three times more hits than my other stories together. I don't want to talk about favorites and alerts, or I'll go crazy(-ier).**

**Ja ne!**


	4. Confessions on a Clear Night

**No comment. Just read the story. I felt tempted to separate the chapter at the double line, just for aesthetic reasons, and I still do, but they would be too short for my liking. Still, it's recommended to read as two separate chapters.**

* * *

The sun rose over Konohagakure, signaling the beginning of a new morning, just as an alarm clock went off. Grumbling, a hand wormed out of the covers of the bed and stopped the damn noise that was interrupting such a nice dream. After some rolling around, refusing to acknowledge the end of the night, a girl got off the bed. Yawning, she went to her bathroom while she undid the braid she kept her long brunette hair at night. The mirror showed the image of a tired, young, petite and naked girl. Reaching almost 5 feet, she had to thank her crazy sensei and teammate for her well-formed legs and her toned torso. Not much muscle, but no trace of fat, and curves in all the necessary places. Her breasts were not too big, but they weren't too small, either, just a full B-cup. Her feminine side wanted them to be a bit bigger, but she knew that if they were bigger, they'd get in the way while she was fighting, so she liked them just as they were. Her face was a little rounded, giving her the mouse-like look her parents constantly teased her about, but she was beautiful, nonetheless.

Tenten stepped into the shower to finally wake up with a warm soak while she thought of the day ahead of her. Most likely, it would be jet another D-ranked mission in which she would have to weed a farm, walk the Inuzuka dogs or, god forbid it, catch Tora. Last time her team had to catch the thrice damned cat, Neji actually showed rage in his face, Lee kept saying that he would fan his flames of youth until they were so hot they would barbeque the demon feline and she herself was debating the pros and cons of making herself a pouch with the pet's skin.

Sighing, the brunette stepped out of the shower and sat in front of the mirror. Experimenting for a while with her hair, she didn't know what to do with her it. Maybe she should cut it a little shorter, but she liked the feeling of her long hair. And a lot of strong kunoichi she admired had long hair: Yuuhi Kurenai, the Neko ANBU, and her idol, Senju Tsunade, they all had long hair. Another strong kunoichi she had read about, the Akai Chishio no Habanero (her name didn't show in the book), had longer hair than her, which gave her the name she was known about. With that thought in mind, she dismissed the hairpins, finished brushing her hair, and left her hair loose. She went out of the bathroom and got dressed in her ninja attire: a pink Chinese-style shirt and loose dark green pants.

She ate a short breakfast and went out of her house, saying goodbye to her parents. While she jumped through the rooftops to her team's meeting point, she passed in front of a ramen stand that her best friend had talked about in more occasions than necessary. At the sight, her thoughts drifted inevitably to the blond boy, and remembered the night of the gennin graduation some weeks ago. That night, she went home after waiting for Naruto to come out triumphant, but, after hours of waiting, she finally decided to go home and asked her parents for some work in the store to keep her mind off the topic. Suddenly, while a chuunin was buying supplies to restock after a mission, another shinobi came in, saying what had happened…

* * *

"_They stole the Forbidden Scroll!" said Izumo, barging in the store. "Quick! We need to search the village!"_

"_What? Who did it?" said the ninja, while he hastily took his new equipment in his pouch and left a few ryo in the counter._

"_The prime suspect is… Naruto."_

_Hearing that, Tenten got up, ran up the stairs to her room, took her equipment and went out, looking for him. Knowing him, she knew he wasn't the type to do such a thing, and she wanted to ask him the reason. While she ran through the village, she spotted Iruka-sensei jumping to the forest. Experience in pranking with the blond taught him that the one with a higher chance to find him was Iruka, she decided to follow him at a secure distance._

* * *

Soon after, she regretted having done that, as she found out the secrets of the blond. After hearing the explanation given by Mizuki-sensei, everything clicked in place like pieces of a macabre puzzle. When Naruto left the clearing, she ran to her home, crying for the blond. After some days of thinking, she felt that she didn't mind. Human, demon, angel, or giant tentacled monster, she just didn't care. Naruto was Naruto, the sweet ramen-loving boy that always kept a promise and had been by her side for the last six years. Analyzing further Mizuki's rant, she felt even worse. She possibly knew better than anyone the difference between a seal and what was contained on it, so she shouldn't have doubted him for a single second. But the surprise got the best of her and she ran away. Ashamed as she was, she hadn't seen him a single time since that.

In fact, the only news she had from the whiskered boy was that he had finally become a gennin. Apparently, he had gone to her family's store once between his missions, but, unfortunately, that time she was out of town on a mission of her own. A mission that had lasted longer than needed thanks to her "_youthful" _teammate accidentally breaking down a wall of their client's house in a show of strength. Needless to say, said teammate got turned into a pincushion in their next team training session.

When she arrived at the meeting point, she discarded those thoughts and examined her teammates. Lee, an almost perfect clone of their sensei, except for the eyes and the jounin flak vest the older clone wore, and Neji, with his inexpressive face, looking around with disdain. She didn't even have time to say hello when Gai-sensei dropped from the sky, rising a dirt cloud.

"YOSH! GAI-SENSEI, A MOST YOUTHFUL ENTRANCE AS ALWAYS!" Lee shouted, making Tenten cringe. _"And here we go again… Now they'll cast that dreadful genjutsu…"_

"Thanks, Lee, but we are in a hurry." Gai said, eliciting a relaxed sigh from Tenten. "We have to report at the Hokage Tower at a most youthful speed. We are going on an urgent mission." The brunette took out her Youth-Japanese-English dictionary. _"Most youthful speed.- Expression. As soon as possible. See __**youth**__." _Sighing, she took off with the rest of her team to see the Hokage.

* * *

"Sir, Team Youth reporting!" said Gai-sensei as they entered the office, renaming the team's name on the spot. Behind him were an excited Lee, Neji… being Neji, and Tenten with waterfall-style tears falling from her eyes.

"_Why me? Why? If I had known, I would have stayed back a grade, so I wouldn't be stuck with these guys… Naruto, you lucky bastard…"_

"Team 9, I have an urgent mission for all of you," said the Hokage with a serious expression in his face. "Two days ago, the gennin squad Team 7 left on a C-ranked escort mission to Nami no Kuni, protecting the bridge builder Tazuna from what we thought would only be the occasional bandits."

"'What we thought?'" asked Tenten, getting worried at a fast pace. She had heard from her sensei about Team 7, and Naruto was there. _'I hope nothing bad has happened.'_

"Exactly. It looks like said builder lied about the mission's details. Team 7 has currently encountered three Kiri Nuke-nin. They clashed with the Demon Brothers shortly after leaving, but, despite finding out about the dangers of the mission, they decided to continue, but when they reached the border of Nami, the were stopped by Momochi Zabuza."

"The Kirigakure no Kijin?" asked Gai, worried too about his rival's team.

"Exactly, as well as a former Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shu." Tenten doubled her attention at that mention. She **loved** weapons, so of course she had heard and read about the legendary group of swordsmen, as well as about Zabuza. The thought of him being involved in a fight with Naruto terrified her. "They managed to defeat him, but we can't be sure that the danger has passed, and the message says that Kakashi received serious injuries from the fight. I'm sending you on a B-ranked reinforcement mission to help them." Sarutobi handed Gai a scroll. "Here are the complete details of the mission, as well as the info on the meeting point with the team. Good luck, Team 9. You are dismissed."

As they exited the room, Gai spoke to his students. "We leave in fifteen minutes. Be at the west gate with all your needed equipment. We'll have to reach Nami by nightfall. Dismissed."

As she jumped through the roofs, one thought remained in Tenten's mind. _'Naruto-kun, please, be OK. We're coming to help.'_

* * *

Miles away from Konoha, a blond boy sneezed and fell head first from the tree he was running up and down. _'Ouch… Damn, just my luck.' _He looked up and to the sides, at the raven-haired boy that was trying to run up one tree and the pink-haired girl who was staring at the other boy with a dazed expression while sitting on a high branch. "Oh, guys, don't worry about me, I'm okay!" he shouted. _'Bastards…' _he thought, as he laid on the ground again, looking up.

It was their first training session as a team, and they had been gennin for more than a month. Sometimes, Naruto seriously doubted their sensei's capability to actually teach. But then he thought about the rest of the team.

The raven-haired boy, Uchiha Sasuke, was the best example of 'lone wolf' you could find around. Loner, thinks a team would only slow him down, power-hungry, brooding, antisocial… And the list went on and on. And to cap it all, he was the "last" member of his clan, after the massacre committed by his brother, which got him everything he wanted served to him on a silver platter by the willing members of the council. Naruto was shown to this truth just two days before, when he had been asking for a harder mission for a while and, the moment Sasuke opened his Uchiha mouth, the council made a 180 turn and finally agreed to give them a C-ranked mission.

The girl, Haruno Sakura, made Naruto wonder how she had made gennin. The exam consisted on a written exam, a taijutsu exam and a ninjutsu exam, and the average grade on all of them decided if you passed or failed. Sakura was just a not-so-pretty face who had a pretty good chakra control and a good mind for book-smarts, but nothing else. She was awfully weak, she complained about any physical exercise and she didn't have any stamina. She was, basically, an easy target and someone they (as in Kakashi and him) had to protect constantly, but she didn't mind as long as she could stalk be with the object of her affections, the Uchiha.

Just thinking about his 'team' discouraged Naruto. _'Where are we going like this? It's no wonder Kakashi-sensei doesn't train us, this team has no future at all as long as Sasuke gets the Hyuuga-sized XXL stick out of his Uchiha ass and Sakura… No, I can't see any hope in Sakura at all, sorry…'_

They were being taught the tree-climbing exercise, something that he had known for more than a year now (something that irritated Sasuke to no end, because he couldn't figure how he wasn't the best of them all) and, when Kakashi noticed that he already knew how to do it, he made him run up and down the side of the tree for 3 hours and, when he could stay that amount of time without stopping to take a breather, he would teach him water-walking, before promising the rest of the team that he would teach them too when they got to that level (after, of course, being shouted at by Sakura and receiving a death glare from Sasuke).

Normally it wouldn't be a problem for Naruto to stay 3 hours or half a day if needed running up and down a tree, in fact, Motoko had already made him do that exercise when she taught him the technique. However, Naruto could not show any good evidence of that, so he had to repeat it. But the constant screeches that the rosette seemed to emit with her throat every time Sasuke miscalculated and fell to the ground made it all the harder to concentrate. And then, he had to sneeze and slip when he was halfway through the three hours.

'_It's official… Today is not my day… Hell, it's not been my month, between the team, the D-ranks and now all this shit!' _He looked up at the azure sky and watched the clouds drift and two blue birds flying past over him. _'At least the sky is peaceful… Ahhh…" _The blond focused his sight on the clouds as the rest of his senses seemed to merge with the forest around him. He even blocked out Sakura's shouts, which was quite a feat, if I may say so. All of a sudden, Naruto shot up off the ground, eyes wide open in an expression half confused, half scared. _'Oh, no… I'm turning into Shikamaru!'_

The jinchuuriki shook that thought out of his head and began running up and down the tree once again. A thought crossed his mind for just a second: _'Now nothing else can go bad... can it?' _What Naruto hadn't thought is that Murphy's Law always applied.

* * *

'_Ok, it COULD actually go bad.'_ Naruto thought as he entered Tazuna's house that night, completely soaked, tired, and holding up a raven-haired boy who was even worse than him. _'He got what he deserved, he shouldn't have tried learning to water-walk being dead-tired from trying to get tree-climbing right.'_ Kakashi didn't want to teach him, either, but the Uchiha's pride was too high to let him be overdone by Naruto, so he threatened Kakashi to teach him water-walking. Truth be told, the copy-nin would much rather have a soaked and dead-tired Uchiha avenger than the village's council on his ass demanding an explanation for Sasuke's complaints, so he let him do what he wanted.

And that resulted in Sasuke trying to stubbornly stand on water when he was too tired from running up trees all morning. At least, Naruto had gotten to the point of being able to stand for a decent amount of time before losing focus and falling.

Now, Naruto found himself dragging an almost unconscious Sasuke to the couch, so he could get a little rest. But apparently, the Uchiha's pink-haired lapdog didn't have his rest in her plans, as she began hovering around him after, of course, hitting the blond in the head as she thought his state was actually Naruto's fault. _'God, am I tired of this…'_

"Naruto, how was training?" asked the silver-haired jounin without removing his gaze from the orange book.

"It was ok… I actually managed to stand for nearly fifteen minutes, but then I lose focus and end up pushing too much chakra and falling…" He thought of that time at the beginning when he had actually bounced in the lake's surface from putting too much chakra on his feet.

"It's to be expected, seeing as your chakra reserves are so much bigger than average. Sadly, you are destined to have bad chakra control, but those enormous reserves of yours make up for that. However, you have to know that-"

"-chakra control is important for making jutsu. Yeah, Kakashi, I know. I was there too when you were lecturing the others, remember?"

"That's right, Naruto, and I'm glad you actually remember my lessons." Kakashi eye-smiled his student. "Now, take some dinner and get ready for tomorrow. You'll be back to training seeing as our reinforcements will hopefully arrive tomorrow mor-" The jounin couldn't get to the end of his sentence when a cry came from outside the house.

"poweeeeeeer oF YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUTH!" came the shout, increasing in volume as the person that was causing such a ruckus was approaching.

Kakashi's face blanched and he felt a cold sweat running down his head. "Oh, god, no. Not him, for the love of all that is perverted, NOT HIM!"

At that point, the front door of the house slammed open, almost falling from the hinges, and in the doorway stood one of the most strange people Naruto had had the pleasure (or not) of meeting in his short life. Almost as tall as Kakashi, the man that had just come running was wearing some kind of strange green bodysuit that covered all his body from ankle to neck. He was wearing a jounin jacket and his Konoha headband was tied around his belt. However, as weird as his outfit was, the most disturbing thing was his face. Shiny black hair in a bowl cut, a face that seemed to scream "YOUTH!" and made you want to automatically call him sensei and…

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei… Are those things real? I mean, there's no way they can be that HUGE."

"Hai, Naruto, they are real… They are one of the 7 mysteries of Konoha." Kakashi said looking at the newcomer at the eyes… or, more specifically, at his eyebrows. "And the worst thing of all: rumors say they are reproducing."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, before turning his gaze to the gap between the green-clad man and the door, where he saw another figure running to their position. When the runner stopped and Naruto could see him better, he said, "No, screw reproduction. That's fucking cloning, there!" The boy that had just arrived was an exact replica of the man, just he was shorter, he didn't wear a jacket, his arms were covered in bandages and his eyes were large and perfectly round.

"Ouh, Kakashi! How are things going, my eternal rival?" the taller man asked to his sensei. Naruto turned his head immediately to Kakashi at the mention of the 'rival' part.

"Long story…" he muttered at Naruto, noticing his confused expression. "What can I say, Gai. It seems my team wanted to buy more they could chew."

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore, because my youthful team will bath you in the flames of our youth, which will protect you and help you complete this mission!" the recently introduced Gai shouted with enthusiasm.

"Team?" asked Naruto, curious. "I can only see you and Mini-you here."

"Don't worry about that, young man. I'm sure Neji-kun and Tenten-kun will arrive shortly, they are just a little bit slower than us." Naruto's face lit up when he heard his best friend's name. He hadn't seen her for so long, and now she was coming with her team! Maybe today wouldn't be that bad, he thought.

Lee finally caught his breath after the long run trying to match his sensei and idol's speed. "Oooo, Gai-sensei! I still can't match your speed! I'll have to train more! Tomorrow, I'll run five hundred laps around the house! If I can't do it, I'll kick a tree 500 times with each foot! And if I can't…" At this point, Naruto and Sakura, who had come to see what the ruckus was for, were staring at the clone duo amazed and a little scared.

"Oh, please! Will you ever stop that?" said a figure as she finally arrived to the house. She gave two more steps to the front and there she was, Naruto thought, Kirihana Tenten, with her brown hair tied up in two buns, her chocolate eyes, her fist cocked back… wait, fist cocked back? Tenten downed a powerful fist on Lee's head that sent him to the ground. "And that's for suddenly start running without telling us! If it hadn't been for Neji's byakugan, we wouldn't even know the way here!" Tenten got ready to punch her sensei too, but she examined the pros and cons of punching Maito Gai on his stone body and opted for punching his clone again. Not as relaxing, but still effective.

"Yeah, and you shouldn't worry about training more." The boy that had arrived moments after Tenten talked now. White eyes, long, black hair, stoic expression… yeah, Hyuuga "Fate Boy" Neji, alright. "Fate has already determined you will be weak."

Lee got up and pointed at Neji, in something that could pass as anger, but was too difficult to read in his strange face. "Shut up, Neji-kun! I'll show you that I can get stronger than you just through hard work!"

"_If what I just heard he would do is his training routine, he must ALREADY be crazy strong. Maybe more crazy than strong, but still REALLY strong." _Naruto thought. The blond was glad he was seeing again boys from what had been his academy class through so many years, but after seeing the craziness level on this team, he was glad he had failed that graduation exam. Tenten was normal, as normal as a weapon obsessed girl could be, but possibly her adoptive parents were at fault for that. Neji still seemed to still be unable to say more than 10 words without saying 'Fate' at least once. And Lee and Gai… were in a whole another level. It was probably the first time Naruto liked his team a little bit more than other.

At this point, Tenten finally noticed the presence of the boy in the room. Now, my dear readers, I'll do my best to depict what happened in the course of nearly three seconds:

Tenten's face showed at first the surprise of seeing her best friend, Uzumaki Naruto, so many miles from Konoha. It was the first time she saw him since she got the headband, so she didn't even know her team (as well as Naruto didn't know hers), so the last person she expected to find in a foreign country was the blond boy. After the surprise, came the happiness. Her face grew a smile that threatened to break her face in two, and she started running at him to hug the blond jinchuuriki. At the same moment, Naruto opened his arms with a matching smile on his face, seeing that the brunette was probably going to hug him. Gai and Lee, on their parts, were glancing interested looks at their female teammate and the blond, ready to cast a special genjutsu that they had created and perfected over the years for these occasions.

In mid-run, Tenten's face changed again. Jinchuuriki. She had heard about Naruto's 'condition' and documented herself a bit. The name alone unnerved her, and when she read the implications of a person having a demon reside in him, she had to fight to not shed tears again for her best friend. Seeing Naruto in front of her made her relive a bit of that sadness. But their long awaited reunion made her forget those feelings and she focused on the moment. It had been so long since she had seen him… So long… So much FUCKING time!

Naruto, who had been waiting with his arms opened for Tenten to come, suddenly found said girl in front of him, in her reach… and her fist coming fast against his shoulder. The fist connected with such force that almost sent Naruto flying across the room. The rest of the people there looked at both gennin with their jaws on the floor.

The blond boy got up wincing. "What the hell, Tenten?"

"Shut up!" said Tenten, looking down, her bangs hiding her eyes. "Shut up and tell me. Why the hell haven't you talked to me all this time?"

"What?"

"Why? Why haven't you come over? Why haven't you come to play, to talk, to train…?" At this point, Tenten was already trembling, forcing her tears to stay in her eyes. "I've missed you, Naruto-kun…" Said boy felt a cold needle through his heart when Tenten said those words. Much worse because of the way she had said them.

Kakashi looked at the exchange between his student and Gai's with a somewhat perverted smile etched on his face. To anyone with a minimally perverted brain who didn't know about these two pre-teens' relationship, this conversation was, at the least, interesting. So Kakashi was saving the audio recording in his "Blackmail" folder.

The blond walked up to her and circled his arms around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Tenten-chan. I'll explain to you at due time, don't worry. But that's over now, so now you're going to see me until you're fed up with me, ok?" Tenten actually smiled a little again and hugged the blond at his waist. He seemed to exude some kind of aura that calmed people around him. Luckily for them both, the green-clad duo were still too surprised to react on time for their genjutsu to take effect, so their first reunion in more than a year wasn't hindered by any twisted and youthful plan from the duo.

"Naruto-kun, care to introduce?" asked a voice from behind the blond, who jumped and saw the eye-smiling face of his sensei behind him.

"Hahaha, Kakashi, leave the introductions to me!" came the loud voice of Team 9's sensei. "The kid here with the white eyes is Hyuuga Neji, a prodigy in the art of Jyuuken." The black-haired boy snorted and turned his face. "The girl there with your student is Kirihana Tenten, a proficient kenjutsu user and weapons mistress." Tenten waved her hand lightly with a small smile in her face. "And the burning-young lad here with me is none other than Rock Lee, Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast!"

"_Where is the 'beautiful' in that?" _thought Sakura. Her train of thoughts about the green nightmares she would be having that night, however, was stopped when she noticed the piercing stare of Lee's eyes, like he was looking into her very soul. Suddenly, with an outcry of "YOOOOOOSH!", he appeared next to her and grabbed her hand.

"Such beauty!" he shouted. "Such youthfulness! Sensei! I've fallen in love with this pink-haired wonder in front of me! Please, could you present me with your name!"

"Sa… Sakura" she couldn't catch herself on time, surprised by the sudden actions of the taijutsu user.

"Such a beautiful and fitting name! Sakura-san, I swear I'll be your knight and protect you from any harm, my darling!" At this, he let go of the rosette's hand and did a cool guy pose, winking and blinking teeth included. Sakura used this moment of freedom to duck behind the safest zone nearby, which she decided was behind her sensei, as her crush was still passed out.

"Kakashi-sensei, it's scary…" The kunoichi dared to peek at Lee again from her cover, and the green-clad gennin winked at her with a serious face, shooting a heart shaped projectile in her direction. Sakura squeaked and took cover again, letting the 'Love Bullet' imbed itself in the wall behind her, earning an astonished look from Naruto. That was one dangerous ninjutsu that he didn't want to EVER face.

Maito Gai, meanwhile, was crying waterfalls. "LEE! I'm so proud of you! Youth flows strongly in your veins!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

Tenten, knowing what was coming next whispered to Naruto, "If you want to conserve your sanity, you would want to close your eyes tightly until I tell you."

Naruto looked at her childhood friend like she was crazy. "What? Why?"

"Don't say I didn't warn you." And she took cover behind Naruto, covering her eyes with her hands. _'I'm, sorry, Naruto-kun, but right now it's every man for themselves.'_

The blond boy noticed a flash of light from where the spandex-wearing duo were and turned to look at them, burning an image in his mind that he would need therapy to forget.

Gai. And Lee. Hugging. And crying. On a rocky beach. With a sunset behind them. The view was so horrid that Naruto's brain short-circuited, and he stood dumbfounded looking at the scene in front of them until a wave crushed at his side and he got drenched. "WHAT THE HELL! IT'S REAL?

Tenten took pity on him and closed his eyes from behind, whispering in his ear, "It's okay, it's okay, the green bad people will be gone very soon…"

"Tenten-chan… I'm scared too…"

"Shhh… I know, don't worry, I won't let them do anything to you…"

Soon, but not soon enough, the sunset and the beach were gone, sensei and disciple separated and Tenten uncovered Naruto's eyes. He took to explore the other occupants of the room. Neji had his byakugan activated, no doubt trying to see past the genjutsu, making the move lose much of its effect. Kakashi now had his headband covering both his eyes, but, surprisingly, he was still reading his book and giggling. Tazuna was attacking mercilessly a sake bottle, no doubt trying to forget that image as soon as possible… Poor Sakura had taken the full brunt of the vision, and was on the floor… "Kakashi-sensei, Sakura is frothing from the mouth."

"Maa, maa, don't worry, that happens all the time around Gai, and nobody has died from that… yet." Kakashi lifted his headband on his usual manner and turned to his self-named 'eternal rival'. "Now, Gai, if you have finished traumatizing my students for life, we might be able to finish the introductions. The raven (*duck… cough* [Naruto])-haired boy sleeping in the living room is Uchiha Sasuke. The poor girl that is slowly dying on the floor is Haruno Sakura, and this blond boy that keeps flirting with your kunoichi," cue blushing from both gennin, "is Uzumaki Naruto. And you all know me already, Kakashi Hatake. The situation right now is this…"

* * *

The night after the arrival of Team Gai at Nami no Kuni, Naruto was on guard duty, resting in the rooftop, his gaze fixed in the star-painted sky. "The calm before the storm…"

"Don't talk like that." The owner of the voice appeared behind him. "You'll call bad luck."

"Heheh… sorry, Tenten-chan." Naruto turned his head, and sure enough, there was Tenten, wearing a plain pink pajama with a frill in the hem, and her hair was braided like she always did before going to sleep. She had probably gone for a late night stroll and she had found him. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Something like that…" In fact, the reason for the weapon mistress to be up so late was the boy she was talking with. She needed to have a talk with him. Suddenly, Naruto snickered. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just that you are always giving off the image of being a tomboy, but you wear pretty girly things now and then, don't you? It's kinda funny…"

Tenten pouted and hit him lightly in the shoulder. "Well, sorry for acting like a girl, but if you hadn't noticed, I am one. Got a problem with that?"

Naruto put up his hands in defence. "No, no, nothing like that! I never said it was wrong! In fact, I actually kinda like your girly side…" he admitted with a slight blush.

Tenten blushed brightly and began to play with the hem of her blouse. "Mou, Naruto-kun is a meanie…" "But you are the only one that sees me like this…" She added in a low voice.

"Huh? You said something, Tenten-chan?"

The girl blushed a new shade of red. "No, nothing, Naruto-kun, nothing at all…" The blond boy moved to the side, motioning his companion to sit with him.

They both sat down in silence, contemplating the forest border, but Tenten was planning in her mind how she should start this conversation. It's not like she could up and say, 'I know about the Kyuubi'. He would probably freak out, and with good reason too.

Suddenly, a cold breeze passed by and Tenten shivered a bit, just enough for Naruto to notice. "Tenten-chan, are you cold?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Should I bring you something?" His trusty jacket was in need of stitching after the harsh taijutsu training Gai had put them through, so he had left it inside.

"You can't go inside, you are on guard duty… Why don't you use a Kage Bunshin?"

"Nice thinking, Tenten-chan!" Naruto smiled and put his hands in a cross shape, but stopped in realization…

How did Tenten know that he could use that technique?

The Kage Bunshin was a kinjutsu, a forbidden technique, and his use was uncommon at best, and much more for a gennin. In fact, according to Kakashi-sensei, the only reason he could use it was because he had more chakra than an average jounin. So how could she even suspect that he knew such a technique? A technique that she shouldn't even know about?

He created a single Kage Bunshin that went to do what he was asked to, and then turned to Tenten. "How did you know?"

"What?"

"How did you know that I know the Kage Bunshin?"

Gears were cranking on Tenten's head until realization struck her. _'Shit. Well, in for a ryo…' _The girl steeled her nerves and she said simply three words. "I was there."

The blond shinobi felt as if his world had come crashing down on top of him with those three words and the implications they carried. She was there. He didn't need any more clues. She had seen the Mizuki incident, or, at least, a part of it. "For how long?"

"I followed Iruka."

'_The whole thing.'_ Naruto felt like dying in that very spot. She knew his most guarded secret, the one that he didn't want anyone to ever know. What now? She wouldn't want to be near him, she would think of him as the monster. The mere thought of that happening felt as if a kunai had been imbedded firmly in his heart. He contained the tears that threatened to fall and got up, saying, "I'll leave you now."

As he turned to jump, he heard a shout. "Wait, Naruto! Where are you going?"

'_What kind of question is that?'_ "Far from you, obviously. You wouldn't want to be near a demon, wouldn't you?"

Tenten felt tears coming to her eyes. "That's true…" Naruto felt another stab to his heart and took a step away. "That's why I want to be near you."

The jinchuuriki stopped half-step with a confused expression in his face. What was she talking about? "I don't want to be a demon. But I want to be with you, Naruto, because you are not a demon. Demons are evil, murderers, and they feel happiness at other people's disgrace. But you aren't any of those, Naruto."

The brown-haired kunoichi approached him from behind and enveloped him in her arms. "Don't you remember the day we first met? Even after you were beaten by that old bitch, you didn't care for your own health, but for others'… for me… That's not something a demon would do. Even when you were despised by all the villagers, you didn't care about it, but you always cared about others. That's not something a demon would do."

Naruto turned in her embrace and found her crying openly, tears running freely down her cheeks, and looking straight into his eyes. "Tenten-chan…" Now he felt hurt seeing her tears.

"And even if I was wrong and you were a demon… I'd still be with you. You are a very special friend to me, Naruto… Even if you didn't find time to see me in more than a year… I still care for you, Naruto-kun."

The blond boy, now crying too, returned the embrace. "I'm sorry, Tenten-chan… You are very special to me too… So please, don't cry anymore, ok?"

"Only if you promise me not to talk anymore like that. Promise me or I'll throw Lee-san in your direction."

"No, please! Seriously, nearly all ninjas I know have their quirks, but that guy and your sensei are downright crazy!" Naruto responded, the sad mood officially broken.

Tenten giggled a bit. "Yeah, you're right. Honestly, for a guy who says to be unable to mold chakra, he casts some strong genjutsu…"

"Don't forget that heart-bullet-ninjutsu-thing. That scared me…"

They continued talking about their teammates and friends well into the night, until she fell asleep leaning onto Naruto's shoulder, her braid tickling his neck and falling down to his stomach. Neither of them noticing the shadow that had been observing them during the conversation, and decided to leave at that moment.

Naruto stole a glance at the girl sleeping next to him and a smile made its way to his face unnoticed. _'Tenten-chan… Thank you… I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't accepted me…'_

At that moment Tenten snuggled into Naruto in her sleep with a soft "Naruto-kun… stay with me…"

Said blond felt warmth and happiness coursing all around him and said softly, "Sure, Tenten-chan… I'll stay with you, always. That's the promise of a lifetime."

* * *

Three days later, Team Kakashi minus Naruto, who was resting after a particularly tiring training session, and Team Gai were arriving to the bridge, where they were greeted by a sight straight out of a horror novel. The floor was littered with the unconscious bodies of the builders, covered with senbon. From the heavy fog that coursed in the wind, two figures walked out.

"Well, well… it seems they are already here, doesn't it?"

"Indeed it seems so, Zabuza-sama."

Suddenly, a third figure went out of the fog. "So this is why I had to come all the way here for? A bunch of kids and two jounin? I swear, for being acclaimed as one of the legendary swordsmen, you are losing your edge, Zabuza-chan…"

"Shut the hell up, Raiga. They are more than it seems…"

"Well, anyway. Let's get this party started." And, with that, he drew his blades and jumped into the Konoha nin formation.

* * *

**Do you think I'm rushing things too much? I think I am.**

**This story won't probably have a post time-skip part, and will end in an original post-Tsunade arc. **

**Worst thing about updating so late is that most of my ideas have disappeared, so now, I'll have to think again all the story, but I have the basics pinned. I still want a name for a sword.**

**Ja ne!**


	5. Omake and I'll come back

I'm sorry to say, but this story is probably going to enter yet another forced hiatus. This is a story that mainly revolves around the romantic feelings between Naruto and Tenten. Several writers out there will be with me when I say that our feelings when we are writing seep into the story.

The girl I 'loved' (or I thought so) dumped me for my best friend. I found out about it today. Right now, I'm drunk up my ass trying to forget. It doesn't work. As you can see, this isn't the best environment to write a romance story. And it hurts me to stay away of this because I finally had the story completely planned out. New original arc and everything. But I wouldn't like to try to write a romantic separation and make it seem like the whimpers of a sorry excuse of man.

Then again, maybe tomorrow I'll feel better and inspired and begin writing anew. But don't get your hopes too high.

This fic will come back. I'm writing notes so I don't forget the ideas I had while thinking of this.

…

This seems a little plain, so I'll write in 10 min. something that was in my head for a while. I'm drunk, don't try to reason with me.

In this short story, Tenten celebrates with Naruto his graduation to gennin (Set after current arc. Not in the correct place for reasons stated above).

**~~~~OMAKE~~~~**

"Come on, Tenten, why do I have to go on with this?"

"Because I said so, is it enough for you?"

"…"

"Look, when you graduated, I couldn't celebrate it with you, because…" An awkward silence came over the young couple that was walking through the streets of Konoha. They both knew exactly WHY the boy didn't celebrate his graduation from the academy. "Anyway, you owe me this for that time on the roof."

"What?"

Tenten turned around and glared at Naruto's eyes. Right then, something clicked inside Naruto's mind. _'Never, NEVER, act against a woman's orders. Much less if said woman can pull out hundreds of pointy and sharp weapons from nowhere.'_ The blond nodded his head and began to walk with 'renewed energies'.

Kiba was forcefully separated from the microphone by a swarm of angry bugs and a barrage of sharp kunai after an 'interesting' dual interpretation of 'Who let the dogs out!" with Akamaru.

"If I had known he would sing this bad, I wouldn't have invited him," came the annoyed voice of Tenten. It was not that bad, Tenten-chan. Kiba is just… a little… too… energetic." Naruto tried to defend his friend. The duo had found Kiba and Shino in front of the karaoke bar they were currently at and had invited them to celebrate together, seeing as Kiba and Naruto had been somewhat comrades throughout the academy years.

Tenten looked at the blond through the sides of her eyes. "Energetic? He was bouncing between the speakers and Akamaru was jumping behind him!"

"Yeah, well. You're lucky he didn't go Tsuuga on the place. There was this one time…"

"Stop, I don't even want to know. Anyway, it's your turn, Naruto."

"Eh? Me?"

"Well, of course! Who else?"

"But… it's embarrassing…"

Tenten's lips curled in a devious smirk. "Oh? Is the great Uzumaki Naruto afraid of singing a little song?"

Shino was the only one who caught the dangerous glint in the blond's eyes. It said 'Two can play this game and you're up against the master'. "Ok, but you're coming with me."

"What? I can't sing, I'm tone-deaf."

"Lies. Your singing voice is beautiful. Besides, you won't even have to sing."

After some (a lot of) convincing from the boys, Tenten came up on the scenario besides Naruto. When the first chords of the song began to play, Naruto stared deeply into Tenten's eyes and began to sing.

**(Accidentally in Love, by Counting Crows. Imagine Naruto leading Tenten with the song (spinning, jumping…) **

_So she said, "What's the problem baby?"  
What's the problem I don't know  
Well maybe I'm in love, think about it every time  
I think about it, can't stop thinking 'bout it_

How much longer will it take to cure this  
Just to cure it 'cause I can't ignore it if it's love  
Makes me wanna turn around and face me  
But I don't know nothing about love

Come on, come on  
Turn a little faster  
Come on, come on  
The world will follow after  
Come on, come on  
Because everybody's after love  
  
At this point, Naruto used the short riff to stare deeply and lovingly into the brunette's eyes. She had chosen to wear her hair down that night, so every twist and turn meant coming closer to the sweet aroma that it carried through the air, and it made it difficult to concentrate on the song.

_So I said, "I'm a snowball running"  
Running down into the spring  
That's coming all this love melting under  
Blue skies belting out sunlight, shimmering love_

Well baby I surrender to the strawberry ice cream  
Never ever end of all this love  
Well I didn't mean to do it  
But there's no escaping your love

These lines of lightning  
Mean we're never alone  
Never alone, no, no

Come on, come on  
Move a little closer  
Come on, come on  
I want to hear you whisper  
Come on, come on  
Settle down inside my love

Come on, come on  
Jump a little higher  
Come on, come on  
If you feel a little lighter  
Come on, come on  
We were once upon a time in love

Here, embraced in his arms, was the girl that had accepted him. The one who knew the prince and the monster, and had still chosen to remain by his side. She was facing away, her eyes closed, so he leaned into her ear and continued singing softly into her ear.

_We're accidentally in love  
Accidentally in love  
Accidentally in love  
Accidentally in love_

Accidentally  
I'm in love, I'm in love  
I'm in love, I'm in love  
I'm in love, I'm in love  
Accidentally  
I'm in love, I'm in love  
I'm in love, I'm in love  
I'm in love, I'm in love  
Accidentally

Come on, come on  
Spin a little tighter  
Come on, come on  
And the world's a little brighter  
Come on, come on  
Just get yourself inside her  
Love, I'm-

The music finished without the singer, as he was too preoccupied with the petite girl in his arms that had assaulted his mouth before he could sing the end of the song. However, the kiss was cut short by the shouts of one Inuzuka that had to run away from two hails if shuriken directed his way. Shino just clapped slowly with the faint traces of a smile in his covered visage. It seemed that Naruto had found the one that was meant for him.


End file.
